Macomb and Oakland County suffered the most damage after bearing the brunt of the storms

CHESTERFIELD TWP., Mich. (WXYZ) - Northern Oakland and Macomb Counties took the brunt of the storm Tuesday night.

DTE tells 7 Action News that the storms knocked out power to about 40,000 customers.  Half of those people are in Macomb County and the rest are in Oakland and Wayne Counties.  Crews will be working throughout the night to make repairs.

A few homes flooded in a neighborhood in Chesterfield Township.  At the height of the storm the Frohms had three inches of water in their basement when the sump pump stopped working.

“It was ankle deep,” said Ellen Frohm, about the water in her basement. “Our van started moving like this and then we got the pets and ran inside,” she said.  The family started pulling power from a neighbor across the street to push the water out from the basement.  The neighbor who owns the generator is away on vacation, but is still powering up four other homes on Birchcrest Drive with his generator.

“They’re all camping, and we had to call and tell them what happened,” said Frohm.

“They would do the same for me if I wasn’t home,” said Mark MacLean.  In return neighbors promised to help the homeowner clean up his home.  He has a table umbrella in the bottom of the pool, the wind ripped the nails clean from the deck, knocked over his 400 pound grill, and the storm tossed the trampoline on the fence.

“It was raining pretty hot and heavy and then all of a sudden  he wind picked up and then it was fog and it was just like being in the Wizard of Oz,” said George Frohm.

Another neighbor lost his fence and many of his trees.

“I knew what was happening because I got an alert from your app.  My girlfriend had just left and it started pouring and the rain started going sideways” said James Coller. 

Their subdivision is a few miles from where traffic lights without power caused crashes at Gratiot and  I-94.  Just up the street at Gratiot and 23 Mile Road where employees ran out of a fireworks tent before it crashed to the ground.   WXYZ Meteorologist Keen Smith said that 65-70 mile per hour winds whipped through Macomb County.  The winds also knocked down power lines and blew the roof right off an auto glass shop.   People were able to clean up about an hour after the storms rolled through their neighborhoods.

The app that Coller mentioned that alerted him of the storm is the WXYZ Storm Shield.  The life-saving app acts like a NOAA Emergency Weather Radio on your iPhone.  You will receive critical alerts via voice and push notification regarding major weather events.  Your iPhone will “wake up” with alerts wherever you are.