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Posted on Fri, Mar 16, 2012 : 7:56 a.m.

Power out for about 2,000 DTE Energy customers after Dexter tornado

By Cindy Heflin

Power remained out for about 2,000 DTE Energy customers in Washtenaw County Friday morning after a tornado left a swath of destruction in its wake.

Most of those were in the Dexter area, where the tornado touched down.

About 3,000 customers were without power in all of DTE's service area in southeast Michigan, said spokesman Len Singer.

Most customers should get power back Friday, DTE said. Full restoration will depend on the extent of damage to the system, DTE said in a press release.

Singer said it could have been much worse.

"I was pleasantly surprised," he said. "We would have expected to see more damage than we did with the storm that went through."

The DTE power outage map showed about power out in large areas of Dexter. Power also appeared out in an area along West Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor hit by heavy flooding Thursday.

Crews worked through the night to clear debris, assess damage and make repairs, DTE said.

Customers are cautioned to stay away from any downed power lines, or anything in which a downed line may be in contact. Assume all lines are energized and dangerous, and stay at least 20 feet away, DTE warned.

Customers should call DTE Energy at (800) 477-4747 to report a power outage or a downed power line.

Power_out_map.jpg

Outage areas are shown in yellow, green and purple.

Comments

MRunner73

Fri, Mar 16, 2012 : 2:40 p.m.

The severe storm lacked the strong wind gusts that cause most power outages. Typical severe thunderstorms will produce wind gusts at or above 55 mph. That causes large tree limbs to fall on power wires. As we saw yesterday, heavy rain, lightning and large hail did not cause widespread power outages.

xmo

Fri, Mar 16, 2012 : 1:16 p.m.

Thank You for saving the planet! "2,000 DTE Energy customers in Washtenaw County without power" DTE needs to add a special "Green Fee" to these people so that they really feel like they make a difference!