Storm damage in Macomb County and elsewhere

My footnote to A fifth drop in gas prices read "There was a big storm this afternoon, which downed tree limbs and snapped power lines all over the area.  When WXYZ has video, I'll post it."  The station finally put up one video about storm damage, and it found something more spectacular than downed tree branches and power lines--lightning strikes church and starts a fire.


As for the power outages, the Detroit Free Press has the summary in Utility crews work to restore power after severe storms hit Michigan.

Homes were darkened and fallen trees and branches littered neighborhood streets Monday morning after a series of severe thunderstorms hit Michigan’s Lower Peninsula and knocked out power to more than 210,000 homes and businesses.

DTE Energy Co. said Monday about 165,000 of its about 186,000 customers that lost power following storms Sunday were still without service. The utility also said in a news release that about 1,000 power lines were down. DTE said most customers should have power by late Wednesday.

Elsewhere in the state, 32,000 Consumers Energy customers were without power Monday morning. The most affected area was Genesee County, where 5,700 were without power. About 5,000 were without power in Livingston County.

My wife and I were lucky.  We only lost power long enough to cause the lights to flicker and our computers to restart.  Even so, the tornado sirens went off and we and our dogs spent most of the late afternoon and early evening in the basement office where our computers are.  Only after the storms passed did we venture upstairs.  When we looked outside, there were lots of downed branches ranging from 2 to 15 feet long, but no other damage on the property that we could see.  I'm sure I'll be cleaning up those branches tomorrow.  Today, I have to go to work.