'And then we're going to move very quickly into the restoration phase of getting everybody's power back.' 'Right now we're focused on securing down wires to keep the public safe,' Lauer said. As the ice continues to melt, the outages should stop growing, he said. Warmer temperatures throughout Thursday afternoon have melted a lot of the ice on power infrastructure and trees and there is minimal risk for more outages, Lauer said. 'Three quarters of an inch of ice is a very heavy amount of ice, and that's where you really start to see the damaging effects on infrastructure,' he said. Thursday's ice storm is historic in both the scope of its impact on the power grid and the amount of ice, Lauer said.

'We've not had an ice storm in the last 50 years that has impacted our infrastructure like this ice storm had.' 'We're in the midst of a historic ice storm,' Lauer said. They expect to restore power to those customers today. Around 70,000 DTE customers lost power after the utility intentionally shut it off to work on downed wires safely, Lauer said. DTE had restored power to 100,000 customers by Thursday afternoon but the number of outages continues to rise, Lauer said.

'For a lot of Metro Detroit, it has been several years since they’ve seen any type of icing of this magnitude,' said Steve Considine, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in White Lake Township.ĭTE Energy President Trevor Lauer said the storm downed nearly 3,200 lines, and officials are worried about people coming into contact with lines as they begin cleanup.

View Gallery: Ice storm causes power outages

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