Tornados strike near Flint, Detroit leaving thousands without power

The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that tornadoes touched down near the cities of Flint and Detroit, leaving thousands in Michigan without power, The Associated Press reported on Sunday.

NWS said that the two EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Genesee County’s Clayton Township and Oakland County between 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. on Saturday. 

Thousands of Flint and Detroit residents reported that they lost power in the aftermath of the storm, with local power company DTE Energy confirming that 135,000 of its customers lost power in Oakland and Macomb counties due to wind damage, according to the AP. 

“The severe weather that hit southeast Michigan Saturday evening has impacted 133,200 DTE customers, resulting in extensive damage to many communities throughout the area. DTE damage assessors and crews have been dispatched. We will provide restoration estimates once all of the damage has been assessed,” DTE said on its website.

“Recent weather has been relentless and has impacted our customers in many ways. More than 1,000 DTE employees and additional out of state and contract crews are working around the clock and are committed to restoring our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” DTE said.

Another power company, Consumers Energy, reported that 650 of its customers lost power in Oakland County’s Holly Township, the AP reported. 

The storm caused major flooding in the Detroit area. The Michigan State Police tweeted that their department canine died due to the flooding on Saturday. 

Death of Departmental Canine/ Traffic Crash: On 7/25 at approximately 1:05 AM, a MSP Canine unit had S/B M-10 & Linwood closed due to flooding. The patrol car was positioned across all lanes of the freeway ramping off traffic. The freeway had been closed for several hours pic.twitter.com/fEbWKnAOlb

— MSP Metro Detroit (@mspmetrodet) July 25, 2021

Both storms had consistent winds of 100 mph and traveled about 1.8 miles per hour, damaging trees and resulting in one person suffering minor injuries, the AP noted.