Storms Cut Power to Over 600,000 in Michigan, Illinois

Posted by Joseph R. Fonseca September 8, 2014

More than 600,000 electric customers in Michigan and Illinois lost power at the height of storms that brought heavy winds and lightning, ripping up trees, downing power lines and leaving at least two people dead, officials said on Saturday.

An Illinois woman died Saturday of injuries she sustained when she was struck by a falling tree and a Michigan man was electrocuted after touching a power line, local media said.

Molly Glynn, 46, died at NorthShore Evanston Hospital on Saturday, hospital spokeswoman Colette Urban said. She had been brought to the hospital in critical condition on Friday.

Glynn was a long-time actress in Chicago, appearing at the Steppenwolf and other theaters mainly, the Chicago Tribune reported. She was riding a bicycle on a north suburban trail when she was struck by a tree on Friday afternoon, it said.

Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon Corp unit, reported more than 174,000 customers lost power in Illinois in Friday's storms. About 62,000 were without power Saturday and ComEd said it hoped to restore power by Sunday night.

In southeastern Michigan, about 350,000 DTE Energy Co customers were without power Saturday after wind gusts of more than 75 miles per hour and lightning downed more than 2,000 power lines on Friday night, DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons said.

About 375,000 customers in southeastern Michigan lost power at the height of the outages on Friday, the 10th highest total the more than century old DTE has recorded, Simons said.

DTE expects the vast majority of customers to be restored by late Monday, Simons said.

DTE crews are working 16-hour shifts and around the clock to restore service and the company has enlisted more than 600 line workers from utilities in Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee to help in the repairs, Simons said.

DTE urged caution around downed power lines. The Detroit News reported that a Warren, Michigan, man was electrocuted after coming into contact with a downed line.

Consumers Energy reported that 77,000 of its customers across southern Michigan had lost power on Friday. That number had dropped to 46,000 by midday Saturday and it expected to restore power to most customers by Sunday night, it said.