Most of Detroit metro area without power after winter storm

Nearly 500,000 DTE customers in the Detroit metro area were without power on Thursday after a winter storm hit the area, and it could be days until they all get power back, according to the company.

The outage affected more than 78% of the metro area due to record ice accumulations that brought down many trees and power lines.

“We’ve seen very large tree limbs come down, very large trees topple over, a significant number of our wires and equipment have come down, several utility poles snapped with the weight,” DTE vice president Matt Paul said, according to the Patch.

DTE warned customers to stay at least 25 feet from downed power lines, even if they don't seem to be live.

Paul also said that more than 1,000 line workers were on the job "around the clock" and estimated that all customers would be back online by Sunday.

The storm canceled 1,700 flights and delayed 7,000 more on Wednesday.