After tennis ball-sized hail fell from the sky as a part of a series of strong storms that charged through southeast Michigan late Thursday afternoon, communities most affected by the damage switched into cleanup and repair mode Friday.
Several businesses and residents in communities such as Davison, 10 miles northeast of Flint, said they'd never seen anything like the massive hail that fell during a brief period. The owner of a local auto repair shop said he was bombarded with calls about damaged cars.
In Warren, a tree fell on a home in the 32000 block of Chalfonte Drive. And in Dearborn, the Interstate 94 underpass at Oakwood Boulevard flooded Friday morning.
Wayne Wodtke, a floral designer at Vogt's Flowers and Gifts in Flint, was at work when the hail hit Thursday afternoon, creating a "dramatic" sound against the building's roof. When he and his coworkers went out to see their cars after the storm passed, all were damaged, but his 2022 Hyundai Tucson seemed to be the worst.
It's dented in 75 spots from the hail and the windshield is destroyed by five holes. Wodtke said the hail was the biggest he's ever seen.
"My heart just dropped," said Wodtke when he saw his car. "The hail didn’t even last that long. It came in a couple waves. It was just a matter of a few minutes. We had a customer in the store at the time, and when he left, his windshield was smashed in three places. We felt so bad."
The hail missed Stacey Harper's subdivision in Genesee County, but that wasn't the case for her parents' subdivision near M-15. She shared a picture on social media of a baseball ball-sized hail in her hand. Their camper was damaged by the large balls of ice.
"Davison looks like a war zone," she said.
Davison resident Jessica Hutchings, 37, was on her way home from work when softball-sized hail began pulverizing her 2008 GMC Silverado, denting the hood of the vehicle and rupturing her windshield.
"I had my 13-year-old kid on the phone and I thought there was a tornado was coming, so I told him if he heard the sirens, get to the bathroom until I got home," Hutchings said.
But Hutchings said after the first blow of hail smashed her windshield, she was determined to get home to her son to make sure he was safe. That was her only concern.
"I was scared, and I don't get scared easily. When this first happened to my car, I was like, '**** it, I'm getting home to my kid.'"
More than 61,000 customers were without power early Friday.
"This storm event resulted in hundreds of “singles” jobs in which restoration efforts will result in getting the power back on to a single customer address," said Cindy Hecht, senior communications strategist for DTE Energy, in a statement.
The total had peaked at around 90,000 late Thursday, the utility's outage center reported.
By 10:30 p.m. Friday, the DTE Energy outage map showed 26,120 power outages scattered across Metro Detroit,with large clusters near Dearborn Heights, River Rouge and Allen Park.
"Our crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to everyone impacted by the extreme weather that hit Southeast Michigan this past Thursday evening. We expect to restore more than 80% of impacted customers by end of the day Friday, July 21 and nearly all those impacted by end of day Saturday, July 22," the utility said.
"Please be safe and remain at least 25 feet away from downed power lines or anything in contact with them. Assume any downed line is live and dangerous."
Consumers Energy reported outages affecting about 190 customers across the state late Friday, with 38 crews working towards restoration. On Thursday, the utility reported 20,000 customers were without power.
A line of storms rolled through the region by 4 p.m. Thursday as part of a squall line associated with a cold front, generating wind gustsnear 60 mph and hail, damaging property across the state.
Squall lines, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are groups of storms arranged in a line, often accompanied by gusts of high wind and heavy rain. Squall lines tend to pass quickly and are less prone to produce tornadoes.
In hard-hit Genesee County, the Todd Wenzel Buick GMC Of Davison dealership "sustained damage to a large portion of our inventory and our building," officials said on the business' Facebook page.
"We are open and can continue to service and sell vehicles, but ask that you please have patience with us as we take steps to repair the damage. Our thoughts are with all of those in the same situation after today’s storm."
Top Quality Collision in Davison said it had more than 50 requests from customers whose cars or vehicles were damaged by hail and needed repairs. Normally, the shop deals with up to 4 customers daily, said shop owner Rick Wilcox.
“This is unprecedented,” Wilcox said. “We’ve never seen hail in this area like this. There’s going to be millions in insurance claims.”
Staff Writers Louis Aguilar, Candice Williams and Mark Hicks contributed.
jaimery@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @wordsbyjakkar
