Storms down trees, power lines in northwest Ohio, southeast Michigan

6/18/2010

A line of thunderstorms that moved over northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan Friday knocked down trees and utility poles and generated unconfirmed reports of two tornados in Fulton County.

Justin Thompson, Fulton County's emergency management director, said one tornado was reported at County Roads D and 25 near Archbold and another in the middle of the county between County Roads 12 and 13 at about 9 p.m.

“We've had tree damage and a couple of poles down, but no structural damage or injuries,” said Mr. Thompson, who was monitoring things from his office in Wauseon.

In Lucas County, the sheriff's office said some trees were down in the vicinity of Raab and Angola Roads in Spencer Township.

A sheriff's dispatcher in Defiance County reported “a couple of trees down — nothing major at all,” as far as damage was concerned.

Toledo Edison reported 5,000 customers without power, 800 in Williams County and the remainder scattered across Lucas County, mostly in Maumee, Sylvania, and Toledo.

North of the Michigan line, sheriff's dispatchers in Monroe and Lenawee counties also reported downed trees and power lines.

The felled trees in Monroe County were mostly along Crabb Road in Erie Township. Farther north in the county, an outage was reported in Dundee.

Farther north in Michigan, CMS Energy Corp. said more than 57,000 customers were without power Friday night in its service area. More than 10,000 outages were reported in both Kalamazoo and Jackson counties.

The utility said it called in all available crews and planned to work into Saturday to restore service.

At the Zoo to Do festivity at the Toledo Zoo, 200 people were moved inside because of the rain.