By Don Rush

The hum of generators filled the silence along the subdivisions off of W. Drahner Road, north into Waterstone subdivision in Oxford Township on Tuesday, Aug. 30. Over 2,700 homes were left powerless after a cold front moved in bringing rain, gusting winds and downed power-lines. According to DTE online Outage Maps, up to 500 homes in Addison Township fared the same fate because from the storm.

“The storms moved through Oxford around 6 p.m.,” Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in White said. “Rainfall amounts were around a half inch. We had widespread 60 mph winds with some locations as high as 70-75 mph.”

The day after the storm, DTE posted that in the Southeastern Michigan region “more than 200,000 customers are currently without power due to the severe storms and 70 mph winds that swept through Michigan on Monday . . . Please be safe and remember to stay at least 20 feet from any downed power lines — assume they are live and dangerous.”

DTE estimated that most of the power in the Oxford area should have been restored by Thursday, Sept. 1.

Assistant Oxford Fire Chief Matt Majestic said overall, “Oxford fared pretty well overall. We did have some power lines down and received a couple of calls related to the storm, but that was it. The bad part was that the power lines that we did respond to resulted in a large portion of town losing power. We were busy with calls for medical emergencies not related to the storm.”

The power-lines knocked down were in the Lapeer/Drahner/Glaspie/Olive roads area.

Addison Township Fire Chief Jerry Morawski said as of the day after the storm, less than a quarter of Addison was still powerless.

“We had about eight calls due to trees and wires down,” he said. And, as far as what area of the township that was hardest hit added, “There really was no rhyme or reason where the areas got hit. It was very sporadic.”

The storm also knocked out power at two local schools. Leonard Elementary was closed due to lack of power on Tuesday; Clear Lake Elementary was out both Tuesday and Wendnesday

Power was restored to most of the area homes by Thursday morning.