Overview
- The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-2 tornado touched down on Detroit’s east side on Thursday with estimated winds of 115 mph and a 3.5-mile path.
- The tornado and related severe storms left downed trees, scattered debris and structural damage that crews are still inspecting and clearing across impacted neighborhoods.
- Utilities say hundreds of thousands of customers were affected at peak and current outage reports vary from roughly 75,000 to more than 90,000 customers still without power.
- DTE deployed about 4,000 workers and roughly 700 outside line crews in what officials call one of the company’s largest non‑DTE crew mobilizations and set goals to restore about 90% of customers by Saturday and the remainder by Sunday.
- Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield declared a local state of emergency and officials urged residents to avoid downed power lines, use generators outdoors, and wait for utility clearance before cleanup as damage assessments continue.