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By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
There are still sections of the city of Monroe without power this morning. At least two traffic lights are out on N. Dixie Hwy.; and part of Noble Ave. has been barricaded.
Here is the Breaking News clip posted this morning at monroenews.com.
A powerful thunderstorm raced through Monroe County Monday night, causing power outtages, more downed tree limbs and a host of other problems.
The power outages were still in effect for many this morning, especially in south county. The busy Sterns-Secor Rd. intersection, for example, had only portable stop signs up at 6 a.m. and all of the area businesses were shuttered due to the the lack of power.
Homes in that area were also without electricity.
The storm began around 7:30 p.m. near the state line and was in the Monroe area about the same time. At least two house fires were reported, one in the City of Monroe and one in Frenchtown Township.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
The National Weather Service in Detroit has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Monroe County, Mich., at 3:25 a.m. Tuesday June 10. I can see lightning in the west.
In the meantime, still no power at my house on northeast side of Monroe … brownout conditions since 8:30 p.m. Our police scanner batteries are running down - the warning beeps woke me up. So I plugged the unit back in so it can soak up whatever electricity is there. Although we have a rechargeable battery system, that radio is self-contained and when it runs out, it’s off. (We ran into same situation during great blackout of August 2003).
Our bigger concern at this point is the refrigerator and the sump pump. It’s one thing to be out of power for a couple hours; totally a different situation when you start reaching several hours.
One of our neighbors has a generator, so my husband was confused when he got home from work late last night and saw some lights on next door. He soon realized we’ve got limited power.
My husband also noticed some of the blocked roads in the area.
I’m wondering what the downtown area will be like. The Monroe Evening News has dealt with power outages before. We can handle them a lot better at the downtown office (newsroom) than we can at distribution / printing center on Huber Dr.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Well, let’s see how long I can keep an Internet connection going this time. I did lose connection at one point. It’s really, really dark with just a camping light and a laptop computer on in the house. I will need to get some more D batteries when this is all done with (yes I’m going to look in the sales fliers and will post what I find at Monroe on a Budget)
A couple of my neighbors in Monroe have decided to start bailing out their sump pumps with buckets - great idea, but I couldn’t figure out how to take the lid off my pump. I did peek in the pump and see that while the water is high, it’s OK for now.
I imagine some of us neighbors will be going to the hardware store in the next few days for battery backups to the sumps. You see, I’m in a neighborhood that didn’t lose power during the August 2003 power outage; although the neighborhood my husband and I lived in at the time did lose power for several hours. So it’s just not something that is a common enough situation for our current neighbors to think about it.
I have, however, unplugged or turned off anything else I can think of. When there’s enough power to run the sump, I want it to run the sump.
And for whatever it’s worth, I did go through the power outage voice mail at DTE Energy to make the official report.
Some of what I’m hearing on the radio this hour:
National Weather Service in Detroit also has posted on its site “multiple trees blown down” in Monroe; a truck that was blown off I-75 near Exit 16; and several trees down in “downtown” Petersburg.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Hats off to the dispatchers tonight for keeping up with all this stuff … more of what I’m catching on the scanner amid the fire truck sirens off in a distance, occasional lightning flashes and soft rain falling in city of Monroe.
In the meantime, the radar picture must have looked really pretty on TV. I just got a phone call from a relative in Ohio who’s wondering how my husband and I are holding up after she saw the weather reports.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
I have to apologize for putting this info on blog page rather than at monroenews.com — it’s the easiest way for me to “report” from home!
National Weather Service storm report page is listing hail seen near I-75 and Exit 17.
Monroe County Central Dispatch has also been making these reports as they call out firefighters:
By the way, feel free to chime in on the comment section with your neighborhood damage reports. I set it up so the e-mail pings will get to my computer at work.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
I’m listening to the Monroe County Central Dispatch on a battery-operated radio scanner. I now know why my home’s power browned out … I did turn off everything possible. I’m on laptop battery power right now.
Here’s some of what I’m hearing as 911 dispatchers call out Monroe County fire departments:
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
The National Weather Service in Detroit has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Monroe County, Mich. until 8:30 p.m. June 9.
Ottawa Lake, Petersburg and Carleton are in this storm’s path.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Here we go again???
The National Weather Service in Detroit has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Monroe County, Mich., until 8 p.m. today Monday June 9.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Are there any damage reports from area residents about the weekend storms? If so, the Monroe Evening News would like to hear about it. You can post back here, and I’ll get an e-mail ping, or call 242-1100 after 7 a.m. tomorrow and hit the “newsroom” button on the voice mail to talk to someone live.
I have an older police scanner at home that will pick up the fire department / Monroe County Central Dispatch frequency. I’ve heard wires down calls at Meadowbrook Drive, 8500 block of Summerfield Rd., S. Dixie Hwy. near Mason Eagles Dr., 2000 block of W. Erie Rd., 8800 block of Whiteford Center Rd. and W. Stein Rd. in LaSalle Township.
The National Weather Service in Detroit is so far posting 30 mph wind gust recorded in Monroe and a 38 mph wind gust recorded in Lambertville; but the NWS has no damage reports for Monroe County.
At 5:30 p.m. Sunday June 8 the National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Monroe County until 6:45 p.m.
National Weather Service Detroit.
Update at 5:49 p.m. both Dundee and Ida fire departments have been called to their stations for weather watch duties. This is usual procedure when the weather service or local emergency management officers need trained people to watch the skies.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Monroe County, Mich., is under a severe thunderstorm watch from 1 to 10 p.m. Sunday June 8.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
Monroe County, Mich., is now under a tornado watch.
By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com
My husband and I watched part of the Democratic National Committee meeting on CNN yesterday as the political wonks tried to straighten out the mess that happened with the presidential primary in January.
While I haven’t decided which presidential candidate to vote for; as a Michigan resident, I think the primary was a fiasco. It’s amazing that it took so long to settle out if and how our state’s delegation would be seated.
Here’s some headlines:
Bottom line: Each Michigan vote counts for half, with the delegations split between Clinton and Obama in a formula that can be described as a “best guess.”
Well, that’s the kid of chaos you can expect when some candidates dropped and some stayed on the ballot. Michigan voters were upset about that situation even before they went to the ballot box.
I think former U.S. Rep. David Bonior of Mt. Clemens, who spoke on behalf of Obama at the meeting, made a compelling argument as to why Michigan should have been included in the early run. While a diversity of regions and populations is a good idea for the mix of early states, economic diversity also should be considered. And Michigan, at the time was one of the few areas where the economy was a very serious concern. (Don’t you remember national headlines only a few months ago exclaiming how wonderful the U.S. economy was — and only once in awhile seeing a disclaimer “except for Michigan,” “except for metro Detroit,” “except for pockets across the country”?)
Now the economy is the country’s “Issue No. 1″ as CNN puts it.
It is helpful that economic concerns were heard during the primary season, even if not with a Michigan voice. When the candidates campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania, they were hearing from states where the economy isn’t good either. For example, metro Cleveland has the same kind of housing market problems as metro Detroit.
I don’t expect miracles from our future president. In fact, I’ve told readers of the Monroe on a Budget blog (see “Presidential Promises”) that they have to figure out their economic solutions on their own, and not wait for any president to solve the problem. Any help that comes from Washington about this time next year will arrive too late for families who are struggling right now.
But if the eventual presidential candidates want to come across as being effective leaders in a struggling economy, they need to pay close attention to what’s going on in Michigan. And they need to offer up some practical ideas that Washington legislators, under their leadership, would be able to put into action very quickly.
By Charles Slat
Passersby might have noticed a lot of excavation work going on recently at St. Mary’s Park.
That was the city “installing” more event seating.
Actually, the City of Monroe Department of Public Services did some plastic surgeon-like sculpting of the landscape to rid the venue of a grassy knoll near the bandshell.
The knoll was flattened and soil carted away to leave an even plane with the rest of the park. Seems the knoll was an obstacle for those attending events at the park and was most noticeably an obstacle during the annual River Raisin Jazz Festival. The knoll itself and festival-goers who used it for seating obstructed the views of a lot of people behind them.
From now on, the park will be a level playing field for all those attending.