Why are there power outages in Michigan and New York?

Winds of up to 80mph have toppled power lines throughout northeastern US

Homes and business are reduced to rubble after a tornado ripped through the area two days prior on 12 December 2021 in Mayfield, Kentucky (Getty Images)

Hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan and New York were left without electricity on Saturday and Sunday by a powerful windstorm that swept through the two US states.

Utility companies and state officials said they had suffered power outages that blacked out an estimated 160,000 people in Michigan and 300,000 people in New York at their peak.

The cause was a night of high winds that toppled electricity poles, damaged transformers and knocked down hundreds of trees, tree limbs and power lines.

New York governor Kathy Hochul said cities including Buffalo and Niagara Falls had felt winds of more than 70mph, with around 97,000 utility customers still without power on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Detroit-based DTE Energy said more than 26,000 customers were cut off as of Sunday night, with over 2,000 repair crews still out in the field and some winds reaching up to 80mph.

The state of the power outages on Sunday night, according to PowerOutage.US (PowerOutage.US)

The US power company National Grid said it was distributing dry ice and bottled water in eight New York towns following “significant and widespread damage to the company’s electricity delivery system”.

The outage tracking website PowerOutage.US was reporting over 86,000 customers affected in Michigan and more than 46,000 in New York as of 8pm Eastern Time on Sunday.

It comes after a series of devastating tornadoes wreaked havoc in Kentucky and five other US states further into the interior of the country, flattening towns and killing at least 90 people.

Ms Hochul said on Sunday: “Last night, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers lost power as a severe weather system swept across the State, bringing hurricane-force winds to several places, especially in Western New York.

“Thanks to the collaborative efforts of state and local emergency managers and the hard work of utility crews from both the state and several out-of-state locations, more than half of those affected by outages have since been restored.

“We will keep working to ensure everyone in the affected by this weather system, which caused death and wreaked havoc in other parts of the country this week, will be assisted as soon as possible.”