[Geo-Aggie]

Last Wednesday was pretty incredible, no? And don't get me wrong, I'm accustomed to large windstorms, but it turns out that 102 mph winds when your largest trees are 10' junipers and 20' aspens are not quite as damaging as 70 mph gusts when you have 80+ foot pines and oaks all around. I've been victim to weather-related power outages, but rarely ever for more than 12 hours or so, and never in the dead of winter when outside temperatures were below freezing (windstorms are a summer thing, no?) I've lucked out and kept power for all but maybe 5 seconds, during the storm, but many of my neighbors have not been so lucky.

In the metro area there are still people without power. In fact, in the local Facebook community group I subscribe for my neighborhood, they've set up a resource request form because people have been without power for so long. So my question is, is this kind of crazy weather event normal?

I know I read DTE stating that this was the largest outage they've ever had, but is it normal to experience a long-duration outage? Should I anticipate this as being part of normal life in Michigan? I have never really thought of weather here as being very extreme; compared to the hurricanes of the south, the blizzards of the Rockies and the Northeast, the tornadoes and floods of the Lower Midwest, the droughts of the west coast, and the extreme heat and/or monsoon storms of the Southwest I considered the Upper Midwest to be pretty well off with only the cold and occasional large snowstorm to worry about. I guess what I'm getting at is, should I invest in a generator? If this happens a lot, I feel like I should be more prepared than I would've been this week for a week long power outage, especially considering I don't have family nearby to go crash at should we lose power in the next major winter windstorm.

Also, what kind of damage did you experience or see? The worst I had was a decorative 3' corrugated metal awning on the side of my house came off, but it was hideous. It was going to go eventually anyway, the wind only expedited things. Driving up Woodward on Thursday I saw quite a few huge trees blown over in Palmer Woods, which was sad. The stoplight at Catalpa and Coolidge has been out for days. Oh, and my neighbor lost about 20 shingles, some of which ended up in my yard (Which really concerned me at first, but after a good inspection on Thursday I determined none were mine.. though I'm still concerned for my neighbor.. she lost a lot of shingles!) - that storm.. it couldn't be normal, could it?

[mjlo]

It's about a once in 15-20 year event, not the norm. The last time I remember in Grand Rapids having this much damage was the straight line wind event May 31st 1998. The only reason I remember the exact date was because my high school graduation open house was supposed to happen the next day, but we ended up not having power for 5 days.


Typically Lake Michigan weakens west to east weather events, which makes strong storms entering the mitten less frequent. Usually the storms heading up from the south are the strongest. Since it is not common to have weather systems move in that trajectory we stay fairly boring on the weather front.

[mgkeith]

No, this storm was very unusual. I don't recall such high winds here in the past 22 years I've been here, especially so widespread.

Funny, the first year we lived here, the summer temps were in the 100's, day after day. There was also a power outage for a few days. We begged people to tell us that it wasn't the norm. Repeatedly, we kept hearing "Weeell, sometimes it gets pretty hot here, you never know," and things like that. We figured that it was some kind of midwestern thing, to not want to give a direct answer. Never experienced a summer like that again!

[djmilf]

A list of extreme weather events in Metro Detroit. This list ends around 2011.

Listed wind storms or derechos (a derecho seems to be differentiated from a wind storm) of note were in 1941, 1980, 1998, 2002 and 2003. I do remember one windstorm in the late 90's or early 2000's which ripped through Detroit and tore the roofs off of homes in Detroit and Hamtramck.

As for destruction from the current wind storm, I've only personally seen neighborhood power outages and non-functioning traffic signals during the latest wind storm. I might have had a downed tree, but the city had come and cut down a big old rotted silver maple tree just days before the windstorm. Count me among the fortunate.

[Highwayguy09]

It was bad it was very rare and with that being said lets hope that spring will get here fast. I hope all with out power has it back by now.

[snoopygirlmi]

These kinds of things are really rare.

When I lived in Kalamazoo, it was pretty typical to have the power go out once or twice during most winters, but it was never for very long. It's just snowier and winder by the lake. I remember a few ice storms that shut things down too when I was a kid. My brother, who still lives in the area, had to use his generator last week, but that's not an every day or every winter thing.

(Things are a lot calmer and less stormy on this side of the state.)

It's weird for it to take this long for power to come back on, but given the huge range of disrupted service, I'm not surprised.

If you live in a rural area and it would give you peace of mind, then yes - get a generator.

However, OP, since you are in the Royal Oak area, I really wouldn't worry about it.

This isn't a typical weather event. Usually, DTE can get the power back on a lot quicker than this. However, usually, the damage is limited and doesn't cover the whole tri-county area.

According to the Free Press, the goal is for DTE to get everyone back up by midnight tonight.

[Juventas]

Every time there is a major wind storm I lose power and during the first snow the transformer always goes out. So wouldn't it be a problem with DTE's infrastructure and equipment?

Originally Posted by snoopygirlmi

These kinds of things are really rare.

When I lived in Kalamazoo, it was pretty typical to have the power go out once or twice during most winters, but it was never for very long. It's just snowier and winder by the lake. I remember a few ice storms that shut things down too when I was a kid. My brother, who still lives in the area, had to use his generator last week, but that's not an every day or every winter thing.

(Things are a lot calmer and less stormy on this side of the state.)

It's weird for it to take this long for power to come back on, but given the huge range of disrupted service, I'm not surprised.

If you live in a rural area and it would give you peace of mind, then yes - get a generator.

However, OP, since you are in the Royal Oak area, I really wouldn't worry about it.

This isn't a typical weather event. Usually, DTE can get the power back on a lot quicker than this. However, usually, the damage is limited and doesn't cover the whole tri-county area.

According to the Free Press, the goal is for DTE to get everyone back up by midnight tonight.

[mjlo]

Originally Posted by Juventas

Every time there is a major wind storm I lose power and during the first snow the transformer always goes out. So wouldn't it be a problem with DTE's infrastructure and equipment?

I don't think so. Here in the Grand Rapids area they are still working to restore power to some places, and she referenced Kalamazoo. Neither of those areas are serviced by DTE's infrastructure, they are on the Consumers network. I think it's just a problem with the power grid in general, it's pretty common everywhere.

[Coldjensens]

Not sure, our power only goes out for 8 seconds. Sometimes we do not even notice until we see a clock flashing in the morning.

[Jomz]

I lost a tree. It missed the house by 18ft. I'm in Troy Btw. Fortunate that it did not hit the house.

I lost internet for 4 days. A friend did not have power for 4 days in Troy. THe funny part is , the friend works for DTE as a lineman.

I hope not to have a similar event again.