Road crews in Oakland County worked through the night Wednesday, Sept. 2, and into Thursday morning, Sept. 3, clearing storm-downed trees from roadways across the Northville and Novi area.
The Road Commission for Oakland County said on X Thursday morning that crews were still at work, prioritizing trees that are not tangled in power lines. Trees tangled in power lines were not being addressed by road crews as of that update, the commission said.
The commission also warned that power outages had knocked out traffic signals across the county. Drivers should treat any darkened intersection as a four-way stop. No timeline had been released as of Thursday for when signals would be restored or tree-clearing work completed, and it's not yet confirmed whether either has been resolved since.
What hit Northville and Novi
Severe thunderstorms rolled through southeast Michigan Wednesday night after a day when temperatures hit 96 degrees. The National Weather Service tracked the storms near Novi and South Lyon around 11:05 p.m. and near Northville around 11:25 p.m., The Detroit News reported.
Forecasters had warned the storms could bring winds up to 70 mph, isolated tornadoes, large hail and heavy downpours, according to Patch. The NWS placed the region under a slight risk, level 2 out of 5, for severe weather.
A flood warning covered southern Oakland County and northern Wayne County until 5:30 a.m. Thursday due to expected rainfall of up to 2 inches.
DTE Energy reported 49,901 power outages as the storms struck, according to The Detroit News. Separately, outages in the broader Northville-Novi service area reached 81,500 customers, as we reported Thursday, Sept. 3.
Local closures
The Northville Art House has been closed since Thursday, Sept. 3, due to the power outage, according to a notice on the Art House website. It's set to reopen Tuesday, Sept. 8, with new fall hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., a change from its previous Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. schedule.
Residents can report road hazards to the Road Commission for Oakland County at 877-858-4804 or [email protected].
