Worst storm in DTE history leaves tri-community powerless

About 12 hours of hurricane-force winds on Wednesday, March 8, left the Belleville, Van Buren Township, and Sumpter Township areas without power – some through Monday, March 13, and beyond.
DTE announced this was the worst storm for the company in its 100-year history and the tri-community was the worst-hit in Michigan. Electrical companies from surrounding states poured into the area to help. The first priority was getting the downed electrical lines secured. Then it was getting power back to some 700,000 customers.
Police and fire fighters were kept busy tending to live wires and blocked roadways.
At about 3 p.m. March 8 in the midst of the windstorm, at Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township, a chartered MD83 that was to take the University of Michigan basketball team and band to Washington, D.C. for a playoff game skidded off the runway and into a fence. There were 109 passengers and seven crew members on the plane. Some suffered bumps and bruises and there was one set of stitches.
The high winds had caused the air traffic control tower at Willow Run to evacuate and send control to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Detroit airport frequently takes over air traffic control for the space, the FAA said.
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated at the scene and on Saturday the plane was removed from the field. The NTSB continues its investigation into the cause of the crash. The plane was operated by Ameristar Jet Charter, Inc.
The U of M passengers got to the playoffs just an hour before game time and won and on Sunday the team won again to capture the Big Ten Title.
It was a perfect storm for evergreen trees, said Belleville’s DPW Director Rick Rutherford. He said with the mild winter temperatures not freezing the ground deeply, the saturated soil, and the shallow root balls of evergreens, the winds that gusted to 78 mph, knocked them down with ease. They were across roads and into houses and across tombstones and broke down a fence at Hillside Cemetery.
Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara and Van Buren Public Schools Superintendent Pete Kudlak set up a warming center at Belleville High School’s athletic department for those who were without power. This was in cooperation with the City of Belleville and Sumpter Township. The high school was a central location, Supervisor McNamara said. He said 30 people worked to get the shelter set up and let people know about it.
It was a warm place to stay with a microwave to use and people could take showers if they brought their own towels and soap. By Sunday afternoon, most of the power had been returned to local homes and people stopped coming to the shelter, so it closed, Supt. Kudlak said.
Those that stayed at home had a hard time, since temperatures dipped to the teens Friday night and into the week end. Then it started snowing on Monday morning and drivers were spinning out on Interstate 94 – one west of Haggerty eastbound at 7:20 a.m., a spinout in the median near Rawsonville Road at 7:56 a.m., and another spinout in eastbound traffic at the rest stop shortly thereafter. There were lots of vehicle accidents all morning.
Belleville’s DPW Chief Rutherford said Mary Talaga in Belleville, a popular school crossing guard and widow of Belleville Fire Chief Tony Talaga, had three pines come down in her yard. She said she and Tony bought and planted the trees when they were little sticks about a foot tall.
In Sumpter there was a field fire reported at about 11 a.m. Wednesday on Bemis Road across from Regency Kennel and Belleville Fire Department was called as mutual aid. Then, Belleville FD was cancelled in route because Sumpter FD found just a smoking field and put it out.
Belleville then proceeded to its call at 110 W. Wabash where multiple wires were down at a pine tree near a home. Then a pole with a transformer on it was reported as about to fall at 46333 Bemis.
Another transformer fell into the ditch at Robson and Belleville Road.
Meanwhile, Van Buren Township fire fighters were at several wires-down calls at Beck and North I-94 Service Drive, Quirk Road, and Cadillac Asphalt on the North I-94 Service Drive.
A resident of Lighthouse Pointe apartments called to say half the complex was out of power and so the emergency lights didn’t work and someone covered the electronic keyholes so everyone could get in.
On March 8, in the midst of the storm, a carport blew down behind the VBT hall and a pole fell on and demolished a car.