Wind knocks out power to 1 million customers in Michigan
March 9 (Reuters) - Some one million Michigan homes and other buildings were without power on Thursday after high winds caused what is believed to be the biggest outage in the state's history, utility companies said.
Wind gusts of more than 60 miles per hour on Wednesday downed at least 3,000 power lines across the state, which has a population of about 10 million people, Detroit-based DTE Energy Co said.
"This is the largest weather event in DTE history," the company said in a statement.
High winds, and soft soil - caused by unusually warm winter weather and heavy rainfall - uprooted trees and brought down power lines and poles, DTE said.
Crews from surrounding states were arriving in Michigan to help restore power, the company said.
More than 679,000 DTE customers were without power early on Thursday, while more than 300,000 customers of Consumers Energy Co, another Michigan utility company, were without power, the companies said.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
