GROSSE POINTE, Mich. (WXYZ) — A number of Grosse Pointe residents are dealing with some level of tree damage. For a handful, that also means property damage, and thousands of properties lost power.
The park at the Rotary Tot Lot has lots of debris from broken branches.
“The kids want to play. I had to get them out of the house,” Brianna Shultz said.
The Grosse Pointe resident said she was fortunate not to experience any of those inconveniences. However, she said the park was still a much needed outlet.
The kids took advantage and made the debris part of the playscape.
“We were like prepared for the storm, but I feel like it never came to our house. Then, we came to the park today for this play date, and it was like destroyed," Shultz said.
A few blocks away, Cameron Bogard who owns and operates Franklin's Tree Care said his crew was chopping trees until about midnight Thursday.
They were back at it again later on at a home where a tree crashed into the roof.
“Big sycamore (branch) fell off this (tree), smashed into his house and did a lot of damage to the ceiling upstairs bedroom," Bogard explained.
He said, “It’s about getting out here to get people’s houses safe too. There’s a lot of weight on the roof structure, and anything can happen."
Charles Pearson told 7 Action News his home escaped the brunt of the destruction.
“I basically watched our tree in our backyard split in half. Power wires started shooting. The transformer on the tree started shooting sparks," he recalled.
He’s still without power and said he’s keeping a close eye on DTE’s projected restoration time.
“I got a text message this morning at 6:30 saying that it would be restored today," Pearson said.
He added, “The original message I got from the DTE outage center was for Saturday. So, that was a better estimate for sure.”
As utilities crews continue to work around the clock, Pearson said he had gone and bought a generator to maintain.
