Severe thunderstorms tore through the Northville and Novi area late Wednesday, Sept. 2, knocking out power for tens of thousands of DTE Energy customers — and a second round of storms through Oakland County Thursday morning pushed the utility's outages even higher, past 115,000 customers by early Thursday afternoon.

As of 6 a.m. Thursday, DTE's outage map showed 81,500 customers without power, with the heaviest concentrations along the M-59 to I-96 corridor, the Oakland Press reported. By 7 a.m., the statewide total had climbed to 86,437, with 86,191 of those on DTE's grid, according to the Detroit Free Press. Outages kept climbing through the morning — reaching 99,020 shortly after 9 a.m. and topping 101,800 by 10 a.m., before dipping slightly to just over 99,000 an hour later. A fresh line of severe storms then moved through central Oakland County and drove the statewide DTE total to 115,650 customers by early Thursday afternoon, the Oakland Press reported. Real-time counts are available on DTE's outage map.

Oakland County alone accounted for about 27,000 of the outages reported as of 7 a.m. Thursday. Wayne County matched that figure, and Livingston County added another 17,000, according to the Free Press.

The overnight storms struck after a day when temperatures hit 96 degrees. The Detroit News reported the storm line reached Novi and South Lyon around 11:05 p.m. and Northville around 11:25 p.m., carrying damaging winds and heavy rain. A flood warning covered southern Oakland County, southwest Macomb County and northern Wayne County until 5:30 a.m. Thursday, with up to 2 inches of rain expected.

Alex Manion, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the overnight storm produced damaging winds as it crossed Livingston and Oakland counties. "We had reports of 67 mile an hour winds near the Livingston County airport and one of our employees lives in Livingston and he estimated wind gusts to be around 70 mph at the very least," Manion told the Oakland Press.

A second severe thunderstorm warning went into effect at 10:50 a.m. Thursday as a new storm system moved eastward through central Oakland County with wind gusts up to 70 mph expected, expiring at 11:45 a.m. The weather service warned of "considerable tree damage" and likely damage to "mobile homes, roofs, and outbuildings," and told people attending the Michigan State Fair to seek shelter immediately, the Oakland Press reported.

That second round of storms caused damage well east of Northville and Novi. Sirens sounded in Troy as wind gusts hit 70 mph. In Oakland Township and Rochester Hills, branches were knocked down and water covered roadways including Adams Road, and in Rochester Hills, power poles along Tienken Road in front of Adams High School were left tilting, closing the road, the Oakland Press reported. The Orion Township Professional Firefighters Local said in a Facebook post that the department had been "inundated with calls following the storm. Multiple power lines down, multiple trees down, and possible structure fires," and urged residents not to approach downed lines. Rochester's police department said in its own Facebook post that "emergency operations are in place" and crews were working to clear branches and secure downed wires, according to the Oakland Press.

No Northville or Novi police or fire department had released incident reports about local storm damage as of Thursday afternoon.

DTE said late Thursday morning that more than 2,600 storm response team members were working to restore power, with 80 more en route from out of state. "We estimate that 80 percent of impacted customers will be restored by the end of the day," the utility said. "We know how challenging it is to be without power." DTE urged customers to stay at least 25 feet from downed power lines and to assume they are live.

Several school districts canceled Thursday classes because of outages, including Howell Public Schools, Madison District Public Schools, Center Line Public Schools, and Brother Rice and Marian high schools, according to Fox 2 Detroit and the Oakland Press. No Northville or Novi school closures had been announced.

This is the second major outage for DTE customers in two months. A July 3 storm knocked out power to more than 380,000 customers statewide and required repair crews from a dozen states and Canada, the Michigan Chronicle reported, as cited by Hoodline. Under Michigan Public Service Commission rules updated in September 2025, customers qualify for an automatic $42 daily bill credit if power is not restored within 96 hours during catastrophic conditions, or within 16 hours otherwise.

NWS forecasters said the region faces a marginal risk of additional showers and thunderstorms Thursday and Friday. Conditions are expected to dry out for Labor Day weekend, with highs near 80 degrees Saturday through Monday.

Residents can check DTE's outage map or call (800) 477-4747 to report an outage. Consumers Energy customers can check its outage map; the utility reported about 2,825 customers without power statewide Thursday morning.