Of those who could sleep during the high winds of Oct. 29, quite a few awoke on Oct. 30 to find their homes without power.
The night could have been worse, according to several local officials.
In the southeastern Michigan area served by Detroit Edison, about 165,000 people lost power that evening, according to spokesman Scott Simons. Of those, about 600 were in Springfield Township and about 200 were in Independence Township.
Repair crews responded quickly, but some residents were still without power on Monday. Simons estimated that ‘the vast majority? would have power restored by ‘late evening,? with some having to wait until Tuesday.
No specific transformers or relay stations could be blamed for the widespread outage, Simons said.
‘It was just general high wind damage,? he said, with power lines down in too many locations to pinpoint specific times of power interruption or reconnection.
While there was some concern on the impact of the outage on the Tuesday general election, officials in both Independence and Springfield townships said Monday all polling places had power restored.
Simons said the utility company made voting locations ‘a priority? in their repair strategy.
Oakland County Sheriff Deputy Ken Overby estimated three or four trees down in Springfield Township, with locations on Rattalee Lake and Big Lake roads having downed power lines.
Independence Township Fire Department Captain Mike Fahrner said his crews responded to only three downed lines, one on the north side of the township, another near Sashabaw and Maybee roads, and a third near White Lake and Andersonville roads.
‘We really didn’t get hit as bad as other areas,? Fahrner said.
The City of the Village of Clarkston appears to have escaped the brunt of the storm. Police Chief Ernest Combs said there were only ‘momentary outages? inside the city limits.