Widespread outages remain in Michigan

More than 700,000 customers in Michigan remained without power early Friday, after a winter storm that led to at least one death and coated trees and power lines with ice continued to disrupt life in the Upper Midwest.

The storm, which brought snow, freezing rain and wind gusts between 30-40 mph across the Upper Midwest on Thursday, knocked out power, snarled transit and caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Forecasters called for calmer weather Friday, and power had been restored to hundreds of thousands of customers in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

But nearly 720,000 customers remained without electricity early Friday in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us, which compiles data from utilities. An additional 26,000 customers were without power in Illinois.

“This intense blast of winter severely impacted our communities across the state,” Capt. Kevin Sweeney, deputy state director of emergency management and homeland security for the Michigan State Police, said in a news release Thursday.

The storm led to the death of Ethan Quillen, a volunteer firefighter from the Paw Paw Fire Department in Michigan, on Wednesday evening, according to Lt. DuWayne Robinson of the Michigan State Police, which was investigating the incident as an accidental death.

At a news conference Thursday, Robinson said Quillen, a lieutenant with the fire department, had responded to the site of a tree that had fallen on a power line.

“He contacted the line and unfortunately was killed as a result of that,” Robinson said.

Paw Paw is about 60 miles southwest of Grand Rapids.

The weather also affected air travel. More than 1,100 flights were canceled within, into or out of the

United States on Thursday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. That included more than 240 flights at MinneapolisSt. Paul International Airport, where more than 13 inches of snow had fallen since Tuesday.

In most parts of Minnesota, about a foot of snow had fallen by midday Thursday.

Flight cancellations were also reported at airports in Boston; Detroit; Milwaukee, Portland, Oregon; and Toronto.

Few upcoming flights in the Upper Midwest had been canceled as of early Friday, an early sign that conditions were improving.

Chicago and other cities on Lake Michigan were experiencing galeforce winds and waves as tall as 8 feet high, the National Weather Service said Thursday.

Hundreds of schools in Minneapolis canceled classes Thursday. In Michigan, Grand Rapid Public Schools canceled classes for a second day, while Detroit Public Schools have been on a winter break all week.