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Storm rips through parts of Port Huron leaving downed power lines, destroying countless trees

Posted at 5:25 PM, Jul 21, 2023
and last updated 2023-07-21 17:25:46-04

PORT HURON, Mich. (WXYZ) — "It was scary. We thought it was a mini tornado or something," said Jonothan Grewe as he and his wife secured their one-year-old baby in the car to get something to eat.

The Port Huron family remained without power Friday and everything in their house runs on electricity.

"It was hot and sticky last night, and he's hungry, and we cook all his food so we're going to go get some Denny's probably," said Megan Grewe.

DTE Energy said about 90,000 customers in southeast Michigan lost power in Thursday's storm, and crews were able to restore 30,000 of those customers overnight.

The remaining 60,000 customers are expected to be back on line by Saturday. And because often more than one person lives in a residence, the number of those actually affected could be in the hundreds of thousands.

A tree came crashing onto the house where Dorian Williams lives.

"My life flashed before my eyes, truthfully," Williams told 7 Action News.

Williams, who works a midnight shift, was asleep when the storm started but the noise woke him up. He said he usually goes to the bathroom first but something told him to go into the kitchen where he closed a window.

Seconds later is when Williams said the tree hit the bathroom area of the house.

"My bathroom is destroyed," he said. But Williams is thankful, fearing he would've been struck in the head if he'd been in the bathroom when the tree hit.

In another part of town, Cheryl Martin had just lowered her patio umbrella when there was a loud noise outside. It was a power pole snapping causing part of it to land on the duplex where Martin lives.

Thursday night, Martin said fire officials told everyone they had to evacuate the building.

"I was actually afraid to touch the door because it's metal," Martin said.

She added that there were power lines "draped" all over the house. "It's scary especially because the house could have caught on fire."