More than 450,000 remain without power in Michigan after ice storm
More than 450,000 Michigan locations remain without power Saturday following an ice storm that brought freezing temperatures to the state.
The power-outage tracking website poweroutage.us reported that more than 470,000 customers, mostly in the southeastern part of the state where the storm hit, are experiencing outages as of Saturday morning. Wayne County, which is home to Detroit, has the most reported outages with more than 170,000, while Hillsdale County has a higher level of outages than any other county, with more than 65 percent of the 21,000 customers tracked experiencing an outage.
The storm that hit the state earlier this week coated power lines, utility poles and tree branches with ice up to three quarters of an inch thick and knocked out power for as many as 820,000 customers. Officials have been working to restore power, lowering the number without electricity to 600,000 by Friday and planning to finish restoring power by Sunday.
But thousands of residents are dealing with ice-cold temperatures in the meantime without access to heat. Light snow is expected to continue through Saturday morning in the Detroit area, accumulating up to an inch.
At least one death in Michigan has been reported. A firefighter died on Wednesday after coming into contact with a downed power line.
Winter storms have also hit the West Coast of the United States hard this week, from Southern California up through Portland, Ore. A blizzard warning was issued for Los Angeles County for the first time since 1989 as the National Weather Service predicted that areas of high elevation could receive multiple feet on snow, making travel in the Los Angeles area “impossible.”
A freeze warning that expired Friday was also issued in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Portland is still facing icy roads that are expected to thaw on Saturday after receiving its second-heaviest snowfall ever earlier this week of almost 11 inches.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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