By Jon King / jking@whmi.com

Approximately 20,000 DTE customers in the Livingston County area remain without power following heavy storms that moved across the area Wednesday afternoon.

In addition, steady rainfall created several areas of flooding across the area, making many roadways impassable early Thursday. There were multiple flooded roads across the county, with authorities at one point issuing a general advisory for motorists not to drive through flooded roadways and to seek an alternate route to avoid getting stuck in the water.

Areas that had been blocked early on Thursday included Grand River at the viaduct in the City of Howell. Another was eastbound I-96 between D19 and Latson Road, where dozens of vehicles were stranded at one point. Both of those have since reopened to traffic.

The National Weather Service estimates rainfall totals ranging from 3 to 5 inches fell across the area overnight. While precipitation has ended across the area, water will be slow to recede through the day. The National Weather Service Detroit/Pontiac Office is forecasting flooding of moderate severity along the Huron River in Hamburg Township.







Flood stage is 6.5 feet and at the last measurement at 10:30am, the Huron River was at 6.8 feet and rising. At flood stage, water begins to flood yards of homes along the Huron River and Ore Lake with those boat docks still in the water beginning to become submerged. The Office is forecasting continued rise to a crest of 7.1 feet, at which point water will begin to reach foundations and crawl spaces of many homes along the river and Ore Lake. The river level is expected to hold through Sunday before slowly lowering to 6.5 feet next Thursday.

As for the power outages, they are scattered across Livingston County and are among more than 600,000 across Southeast Michigan. No definitive restoration time is being provided by DTE.

With the power out and high temps, the Salvation Army of Livingston County has opened its doors as a cooling center. They are located at 503 Lake Street in Howell. The cooling center will be open Thursday and Friday from 9am to 12pm and 1pm to 4pm.

The Livingston County Judicial Center in Howell has announced that they will be closed all day Thursday because of the outage. However, the Brighton court facility will be open as normal for scheduled matters.

The Cromaine District Library in Hartland is closed Thursday due to a power outage and flooding on the first floor.

However, the planned LESA Backpacks for Kids drive-thru event will go on as scheduled starting at 10am.

Stay tuned to WHMI 93.5FM and whmi.com for the latest traffic and weather updates.


Top photo is a screenshot of DTE Outage Map as of 11:20am

Middle photo is of Eastbound I-96 near Chilson Road courtesy of Lindsay Root

Bottom photo is of a tree down in Hartland Township courtesy of Jennifer Turner