Thousands of Southeast Michigan residents without power as high winds pick up
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Thousands of Southeast Michigan residents without power as high winds pick up
By
Paula Wethington
Web Producer
Paula Wethington is a digital producer at CBS Detroit. She previously held digital content roles at NEWSnet, Gannett/USA Today network and The Monroe News in Michigan. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
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Updated on: March 13, 2026 / 8:05 AM EDT
/ CBS Detroit
Thousands of Southeast Michigan residents lost power Friday morning as high winds took hold in the region.
The National Weather Service in Detroit has issued a high wind warning that will be in effect for 10 p.m. Friday for an area that includes Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne counties.
CBS News Detroit’s weather team has issued a Next Weather Alert day for Friday with the expected conditions.
DTE, whose electric service area includes most of Southeast Michigan, showed 9,600 customers without power on its outage map at 8:05 a.m., a noticeable spike from the 3,000 who were shown on the outage map to be without power at 7:30 a.m. Those outages were all over the Metro Detroit area, with South Lyon among the hardest-hit spots with over 2,000 customers out. Wind damage was listed as the cause for many of those scattered outages.
Consumers Energy, whose electric service area includes parts of Lenawee and Monroe County, had about 2,000 customers out in Lenawee County at 7:45 a.m. The hardest-hit area was near Morenci.
If you do lose power to a refrigerator or freezer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says to keep the doors closed on those appliances. A fully stocked refrigerator can stay cold for about four hours; if the power outage lasts longer, then transfer perishable foods into a cooler stocked with ice. A freezer will keep its temperature for 24 hours if half full, or 48 hours if full.
