Storms cut power to more than 600,000 in Michigan, Illinois

[September 08, 2014]  (Reuters) - More than 600,000 electric customers in Michigan and Illinois lost power at the height of storms that brought heavy winds and lightning, ripping up trees, downing power lines and leaving at least two people dead, officials said on Saturday.

An Illinois woman died Saturday of injuries she sustained when she was struck by a falling tree and a Michigan man was electrocuted after touching a power line, local media said.

Molly Glynn, 46, died at NorthShore Evanston Hospital on Saturday, hospital spokeswoman Colette Urban said. She had been brought to the hospital in critical condition on Friday.

She was struck by a falling tree Friday afternoon while riding a bicycle on a forest preserve trail, Cook County Sheriff's office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said.

Glynn was a long-time actress in Chicago, appearing at the Steppenwolf and other theaters, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Commonwealth Edison, an Exelon Corp unit, reported more than 174,000 customers lost power in Illinois in Friday's storms. About 62,000 were without power Saturday and ComEd said it hoped to restore power by Sunday night.

In southeastern Michigan, about 312,000 DTE Energy Co customers were without power Saturday afternoon after wind gusts of more than 75 miles per hour (120 km per hour) and lightning downed more than 2,000 power lines on Friday night, DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons said.

About 375,000 customers lost power at the height of the outages on Friday, the 10th highest total DTE has recorded, Simons said.

DTE expects the vast majority of customers to be restored by late Monday, though some may not have power until Wednesday.

DTE crews are being assisted in the repairs by more than 600 line workers from utilities in Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee, Simons said.

DTE urged caution around downed power lines. The Detroit News reported that a Warren, Michigan, man was electrocuted after coming into contact with a downed line.

Consumers Energy reported that 77,000 of its customers across southern Michigan had lost power on Friday. That number had dropped to 46,000 by midday Saturday and it expected to restore power to most customers by Sunday night, it said.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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