Crews from two major utilities in Michigan were busy restoring power on Wednesday to over 300,000 homes and businesses that were left without electricity due to severe storms. The storms caused trees and branches to fall onto power lines, leading to widespread power outages in central and southeastern parts of the state. As of late Wednesday morning, more than 320,000 customers in Michigan were impacted, with DTE Energy reporting over 200,000 outages and Consumers Energy more than 108,000.
One resident in Royal Oak, Michael Zaccardelli, narrowly escaped damage when a tree fell on the exact spot where his car had been parked shortly after he moved it due to the approaching bad weather. He expressed gratitude that no one was hurt in the incident.
Consumers Energy announced that they would be providing water and ice to residents in Midland and Rockford while their crews worked around the clock to restore power. Norm Kapala, a restoration officer at Consumers Energy, emphasized the company’s focus on getting the power back on for the affected areas.
In the Chicago area, severe storms also caused damage, including toppled trees that hit homes and vehicles. This followed a record high temperature of 99 degrees set at O’Hare International Airport. The storms brought relief from the heat wave in northern Illinois, with cooler temperatures and lower humidity expected due to a cold front moving through the region.
Heat advisories were issued for several regions, including the St. Louis metropolitan area, parts of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and the mid-Atlantic region. The National Weather Service warned of potential daily high temperature records being broken. Severe thunderstorms were predicted for the Ohio Valley, the northern mid-Atlantic coast, and parts of North and South Dakota.
In the central Pacific Ocean, three tropical storms – Hone, Gilma, and Hector – were projected to weaken. The remnants of Gilma and Hector were anticipated to bring much-needed rainfall to Hawaii over the weekend. Meanwhile, no tropical storms were expected in the Atlantic region on Wednesday.