A combination of crashes and power outages was wreaking havoc on motorists' evening commute Friday in the Ann Arbor area. Several traffic lights were out around town, including at Eisenhower Boulevard and Stone School Road, a dispatcher with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office said shortly after 5 p.m.
Storms that moved through the area in the early afternoon left several thousand customers in Washtenaw County without electricity. A specific estimate was not immediately available, a DTE Energy spokeswoman said.
A couple of crashes also were causing lengthy backups on freeways, including on northbound U.S. 23 at Eight Mile Road and eastbound Interstate 94 and Ann Arbor Saline Road. No further information was immediately available on those crashes.
The DTE power outage map showed several pockets of outages in Ann Arbor and in eastern Washtenaw County. The utility, which was dealing with several outages in its southeast Michigan service area, hoped to have service restored Friday night, though a specific estimate was not available.
The area could be in for continued storms this evening. The forecast called for overcast skies with thunderstorms.
Outage areas are shown in red, orange, yellow, green and purple on the map.