Tuesday’s storms leave a trail of devastation in Rochester Hills
Damage included about half a dozen downed power poles along South Livernois near Avon Road.
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) – Fox 2 drones were high in the skies over Rochester Hills as DTE and other utility crews cleaned up the mess left by Mother Nature Tuesday night.
DTE Energy has called in around 800 teams from across the region to help with the massive effort to restore power. 95,000 customers are still without power, up from over 200,000 24 hours ago.
Damage included about half a dozen downed power poles along South Livernois near Avon Road.
“I have no idea how such a thick bar could simply break in half,” said Lucas Ribeiro.
Ribeiro speaks of one of these pylons near his house being hit by winds of 110 km/h, as well as gusts of wind that knocked out power to numerous homes in the area.
“Our house is broken, the roof is broken. But thank God everyone is fine,” he said.
And he means the last part literally. His father was mowing the lawn directly under the mast when it fell over in the storm.
“Thank God he was able to jump and get out of the way,” he said.
FOX 2: “He was that close?”
“Yes. He was right underneath,” Ribeiro said.
While workers threw the sawn-off branches into wood chippers, giving crews needed to restore power more room to work, others are trying to find ways to stay cool without air conditioning.
“Nobody used to have air conditioning,” Patsy said. “You opened the refrigerator and cooled down, you know?”
This is Patsy’s Plan B.
To get to her daughter’s house, she had to navigate road closures – just one of many challenges that awaited her.
“So we went down and came in and saw that all the lights were out in the neighborhood,” she said. “People were trying to hook up their (generators), you know? We’re back here today to help her out in some way.”
