Beware of downed power lines after severe thunderstorms
Your commute to work on Wednesday might be a little more difficult due to downed power lines in Metro Detroit. Some of those lines simply powered traffic lights, while other lines blocked roads.
WEDNESDAY NEWS HIT – Severe thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon and overnight wreaked havoc in the Detroit metropolitan area, with some areas experiencing winds gusting over 70 miles per hour as the storms moved through.
From downed trees and power lines to power outages, many people are now dealing with the aftermath of the storms.
In Lincoln Park, winds swept through the area, causing witness Jessica Raymond Wilson to wonder if she had seen a tornado. She sent FOX 2 a video from the intersection of Dix Road and London Street.
The downed lines caused several fires, including a car fire in Garden City and a burning line in St. Clair Shores.
Due to dark intersections and fallen poles and wires, getting around may be a little difficult on Wednesday morning. Due to leaning power poles at the intersection of 10 Mile and Northwestern Highway, the traffic lights at the intersection are broken. The Northwestern exit southbound to 10 Mile is therefore closed.
Have you seen storm damage? Share your photo with FOX 2 here and you could see it on air.
Hundreds of thousands without electricity
There are dangling cables and unfortunately this also means power outages.
As of 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, more than 207,000 DTE customers are without power, while more than 120,000 Consumers Energy customers are in the dark. DTE said it has crews from other states in Michigan as the company works to restore power.
Click here to view the DTE outage map or to report an outage.
These outages have led to dozens of school closures. You can find the list here.
If you see a downed power line:
- Stay at least 25 feet (7.5 meters) away from a downed power line, and make sure that you, your family, pets, or neighbors do not touch anything that the line touches, such as a fence or a puddle.
- In case of emergency, be sure to call 9-1-1.
- Assume that all downed power lines are live and dangerous – even if you don’t see sparks, smell smoke, or hear a humming noise. Contact with a downed power line, including touching it with an object – such as a broom or pole – can result in serious injury.
- Do not drive over a downed power line. If a power line falls on your car, stay in the car and wait for help.
- Never cross the yellow tape that surrounds the area of a downed power line.
A quieter day is expected today
After the storm on Tuesday, it is expected to be calmer today, but thunderstorms cannot be completely ruled out.
Today will remain warm and humid, but temperatures will drop, with scattered showers to begin with and scattered to isolated thunderstorms later. Severe thunderstorms are *not* likely, however.
Current radar models show that storms and rain will arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
While the southernmost part of Michigan falls into the “low risk” category, most of the lower half of the state will only see thunderstorms.
Man survives being hit by a train
A 20-year-old man was sleeping on railroad tracks in Ann Arbor when he became trapped under a freight train and nearly had his left hand amputated.
“This is a one-time event. We can’t train for this,” said Ann Arbor Fire Chief Mike Kennedy.
The man’s hand was trapped deep between the wheel, axle and part of the engine. The incident occurred at 9:37 p.m. on Monday near the intersection of North First Street and Miller Avenue.
The freight train was traveling slowly – about 15 mph – when it struck the man and was able to stop shortly afterward. However, the location and strength of the metal made recovery difficult.
“Access was limited and this is really significant metal, so many of our normal tools and techniques don’t work on something this extraordinary,” Kennedy said.
After an hour of trying to free the man’s trapped hand, a team of surgeons from the University of Michigan were flown to the scene by helicopter to potentially amputate his hand. However, he was freed without losing his hand. The entire rescue took nearly two hours.
Hotel manager in Detroit allegedly sexually harassed employee
A new lawsuit filed by a former employee of the Detroit Marriott Hotel at the Renaissance Center alleges the woman was sexually abused by her manager.
The perpetrator has since been arrested and charged with sexual abuse.
But according to the victim’s lawyer, her new reality is a bad dream.
“This is every woman’s or employee’s worst nightmare: to be sexually assaulted and abused in the workplace,” said Jon Marko, who represents the victim.
Marko said the victim was manipulated by her manager, now identified as Durba Koirala.
The suspect then lured her into a hotel room where she was given something to drink. After consuming the drink, she lost consciousness.
“What I really want to find out is if there are any other women – if this happened to them,” Marko said. “Because as far as I know, he was supposed to fly to Hawaii right after that, and he just flew in from another place.”
Live on FOX 2
Daily forecast
Today it will remain hot and humid, but calmer.
Serious threat looms
After the heavy thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday night, the severe threat has disappeared from the area. Alan Longstreet tells you what to expect today.
What else we observe
- Flint police say a young girl’s statement that she was abducted from Detroit may be false, as the incident appears to have raised more questions than answers. The girl told a person Tuesday night she was abducted from a McDonald’s.
- Vice President Kamala Harris will be in Michigan on Labor Day as she continues her campaign tour through swing states for the 2024 election.
- Lawmakers are concerned about the radioactive waste ending up at a landfill in Van Buren Township, questioning the safety of the material’s transportation and reporting process.
- Today is the second day of the adult book fairs hosted by Sidetrack Bookshop and North End Taproom. Find out more here.
- Still need plans for Labor Day weekend? Check out our events calendar.
Special investigator files new charges in Trump case of January 6
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a new indictment against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, keeping the charges unchanged but narrowing the allegations against him in the January 6 indictment.
The new indictment strikes out a section of the indictment that accused Trump of attempting to use the Justice Department’s police powers to overturn his election defeat, an area on which the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 ruling last month that Trump was absolutely immune from prosecution.
The scaled-back criminal case is a first attempt by prosecutors to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that will likely result in a significant revision of the charges against Trump for his efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. The case was filed three days before the deadline for Smith’s office to tell the judge how it plans to proceed in light of the ruling, which presumably gives former presidents immunity from prosecution for official White House acts.
The special counsel’s office said the updated indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case.
