Last night's storm knocked out power to 120,000 customers and damaged mobile homes

Last night, I quoted from a Royal Oak Patch article about the effects of the storm on nearby communities.

Meanwhile, Royal Oak and surrounding communities were especially hard hit by the storm; DTE Energy's website indicated at 12:20 a.m. that nearly 4,400 customers were without power in Royal Oak's zip code areas of 48067 and 48073. Ferndale had more than 6,000 homes without power, and Pleasant Ridge, Oak Park and Madison Heights had thousands left powerless as well.

Tom Wait of WXYZ reports from Pleasant Ridge about the power outages from the storm there.






Power outages in Metro Detroit

The Detroit Free Press also focused on Pleasant Ridge as they reported that Storm cleanup continues as 59,000 still without power in metro Detroit.

Residents in John Monaghan’s neighborhood in Pleasant Ridge spent today working with city crews and one another, using chain saws and rakes to remove debris from the area.


The damage from Saturday’s storms -- which knocked out power to 120,000 customers -- included many downed trees and branches, said Monaghan, who lives on Cambridge Street.
...
Nearly 59,000 DTE customers remained without power at 9:45 p.m. tonight after rain and winds of up to 70 m.p.h. swept through southeastern Michigan the day before. DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons said the powerful storms downed more than 1,000 wires across the area as line crews were busy clearing debris, trees and branches. He said the utility expects to have power restored to up to 90% of the remaining customers by Monday evening.
...
Simons said additional help was on the way, as 70 crews are expected to return tonight from helping restore power to those affected by Hurricane Irene. Another 70 crews from other utilities also should to arrive tonight to help with the power restoration.

Yes, Hurricane Irene is having an indirect effect here in metro Detroit, even more than a week after it hit.

More than power was knocked out.

The trees blown down by the storm damaged a mobile home park in Madison Heights. Tara Edwards of WXYZ has the story.






Mobile homes in Madison Heights were damaged in Saturday's storm.

Now for a closeup of that pine tree that fell on the trailer along with the tale of the woman who lives inside it.






Saturday's storms knocked down trees in Madison Heights.

At least it looks like the trailer is still inhabitable. The same can't be said of at least one of her neighbors.

Neighbors in Madison Heights have a long day of cleanup ahead from Saturday's storms.

The beginning of this clip was a quick summary of the first one, but it quickly turned into something new as Tara showed what was visible in the daylight.

The next clip is more of the same. I would have skipped it except that it includes an interview with an Australian immigrant who had never experienced such severe weather. Someone should have told him about the affinity of high winds for mobile homes. Personally, I don't think he got a tornado, just gale-force straight-line winds. That's what I experienced yesterday a few miles upwind of him.






Saturday's storms left behind a trail of damage in Madison Heights.

I know weather isn't climate, but as the two residents of the mobile home park mentioned, they hadn't ever experienced anything like this before, including one woman who had lived there for 22 years. That has to count for something.