640,000 lack power in Michigan after storm
Nearly 640,000 customers in Michigan remained without power 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 of 30 mph to 40 mph across the Upper Midwest on Thursday, knocked out power and snarled traffic. Calmer weather Friday helped with the restoration of power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Consumers Energy, one of the major power companies in Michigan, estimated that power would be restored in areas by Sunday.
The Upper Midwest into the Northeast, northern mid-Atlantic and central Appalachians could continue to get snow and freezing rain in some parts through Saturday evening, forecasters said.
“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 storm affected air travel, with more than 1,100 flights being canceled Thursday and Friday across the country. Disruptions at Midwest airports had largely subsided as snow totals reported by the National Weather Service showed that the region had little accumulation throughout Friday.
Hundreds of schools in Minneapolis canceled classes Thursday. Detroit Public Schools have been on a winter break all week.
The storm also caused trouble in the Northeast on Thursday. In Buffalo, N.Y., which was crushed by a late December blizzard that killed dozens, about a half-inch of freezing rain fell, according to the weather service. More than 17,000 customers were without power, but by Friday it was nearly all restored.