Wintry mix causes icy roads, outages, travel issues across Michigan

By Ben Warren, Max Reinhart, MediaNews Group

Freezing rain and ice created harmful situations in southeastern Michigan on Friday, inflicting flight cancellations and automotive accidents throughout the area.

The Nationwide Climate Service had issued a winter climate advisory for Metro Detroit north by the M-59 and Interstate 69 corridors, together with St. Clair, Washtenaw, Genesee, Saginaw, Tuscola and Sanilac counties.

Based on the climate service’s storm report map, Saginaw recorded essentially the most freezing rain on Friday, with simply over 1 / 4 of an inch. Detroit received about 0.14 inches.

The division obtained reviews of fallen tree limbs in areas together with Bay Metropolis and Port Huron.

The ice buildup precipitated a number of accidents, together with a number of crashes on I-75 close to Saginaw. The Michigan Division of Transportation’s Bay Area, which covers the areas of Mt. The state’s Nice, Saginaw, Flint and the Thumb space reported no less than six crashes Friday that quickly closed lanes alongside the freeway.

Amongst them have been collisions on the Zilwaukee Bridge, which MDOT mentioned was closed in each instructions. WNEM Saginaw reported a number of semi-trucks have been knifed on the Saginaw River resulting from slippery situations.

By 11:30 a.m., each instructions of the bridge have been open to visitors once more, MDOT reported.

On Fb, Saginaw County 911 Central Dispatch wrote that I-75 was “fully closed” in each instructions as a result of crashes. The company warned motorists to keep away from the world if attainable and drive fastidiously.

Based on the Mackinac Bridge Authority web site, visitors on the Mackinac Bridge slowed to twenty miles per hour resulting from ice on the bridge deck.

As rain arrived early Friday, greater than 40 scheduled flights out of Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus have been canceled, in response to the flight standing web site. The cancellations might have an effect on vacationers returning house after the Christmas holidays.

“We’re at present not experiencing frigid situations at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Flight delays or cancellations are on the discretion of the airways,” Cortez Strickland, a spokesperson for DTW, wrote in an e-mail.

“In anticipation of icy situations, our Airfield Operations and Upkeep groups have been pre-treating the runways and taxiways. Crews will proceed to observe the state of affairs.”

Ice continued to fall in some areas into the early afternoon hours, in response to NWS information.

“Untreated surfaces will probably be lined in ice, and we must always see extra freezing rain all through the day,” mentioned Kevin Kacan, a meteorologist with the NWS workplace in Detroit.

“An important factor is journey. Any roadway not handled with salt will be slippery and harmful to drive on.”

Temperatures in southeastern Michigan simply topped freezing Friday afternoon. In Detroit, which is often the warmest level within the area, most temperatures peaked at 34 levels Fahrenheit round 4 p.m.

Temperatures will proceed to fluctuate round freezing on Saturday, as much as 35 levels. However Sunday will probably be even hotter, with a excessive of 49 levels, the NWS mentioned.

Each branches of the West Bloomfield Township library have been closed Friday resulting from rain, in response to an e-mail from the library system.

Energy outages have been reported throughout the world after ice constructed up on tree branches and different surfaces.

Customers Vitality’s outage map confirmed that greater than 4,000 clients misplaced energy alongside the I-75 hall close to Prescott in Ogemaw County on Friday morning. The map listed the reason for the outage as “storm harm.” As of Friday night, greater than 25,000 Customers clients have been nonetheless with out energy, principally within the central Decrease Peninsula. By mid-morning Saturday, Customers reported that 14,667 clients have been with out energy resulting from 303 outages, principally in central Michigan.

By early Friday afternoon, practically 30,000 DTE Vitality clients have been with out energy in southeastern Michigan. By the night hours, that quantity had dropped to about 13,000, with Lake Orion and different components of northeastern Oakland County among the many hardest hit within the area.

bwarren@detroitnews.com

mreinhart@detroitnews.com