Severe storms hit Great Lakes, knocking trees through homes and cutting power

Severe thunderstorms ransacked the Great Lakes states Tuesday evening, knocking out power for 340,000 customers in Michigan. Outages peaked Tuesday night but had dropped to 224,000 by Wednesday evening.

A tree sliced through a house in Union Pier, Michigan, during the storms, photos from Nates Dronography showed. Local media also reported the damage but did not say if anyone was hurt.

A tree sliced through a house in Union Pier, Michigan during a severe storm on August 27, 2024. (Nates Dronography)

In Milwaukee, a viral video captured the moment a tree came crashing down, nearly hitting a person on a bicycle on North 61st Street. The tree also hit a power line as it crashed onto the road.

The cyclist wasn't able to react quickly enough and hit the tree, tumbling over it. Lorenzo Parker, who captured the footage, told Storyful that the cyclist got up and didn't appear to have any injuries.

The hardest-hit area was Clare County, located in north-central Michigan, where 40% of the 26,000 electric customers were left in the dark as of Wednesday morning.

Winds gusted as high as 76 mph Wednesday evening at the Detroit airport while 2.5-inch-diameter hail was reported near Woodstock, Illinois, northwest of Chicago. Trees were reported down from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Detroit and from west and north of Chicago to Toledo, Ohio.