After dark Thanksgiving for thousands, power restored for nearly all Metro customers

Utilities in Michigan said they’ve restored power to most of their customers, after thousands were in the dark on Thanksgiving Day after winds approaching 50 and 60 miles per hour swept across parts of lower Michigan on Wednesday.

Map: See the DTE map of local power outages here.

At the peak of the outage,106,000 of DTE Energy's 2.2 million homes and businesses in Metro Detroit had lost power. By Friday morning, electricity had been restored to all but about 850. Outages were scattered, mostly individual homes and small pockets of fewer than 100 customers. 

"We apologize to those customers who are experiencing and have experienced a power outage due to the weather," the utility said in a statement. "We know that this is a day to give thanks and celebrate with family and friends, and being without power is inconvenient and frustrating."

Consumers Energy, power provider for outstate Michigan, had 77,000 outages at its peak. By Friday morning, all but about 2,700 had their power restored.

Map: Consumers Energy map of power outages

Blustery weather hit much of the country on Wednesday. High winds that had ripped a wooden sign from scaffolding on Chicago’s Willis Tower and nearly felled the Christmas tree to close Cleveland’s Public Square were calm enough by Thursday morning to allow the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York to proceed, albeit with balloons flying at lower levels.

Heading into the weekend, highs near 40 degrees are forecast for Friday in the Detroit area, under mostly cloudy skies.

There's a chance of snow before 9 a.m. Saturday, with rain and snow likely between 9 a.m and 2 p.m., then rain likely after 2 p.m. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch is possible. A high of around 37 is expected.

Up to a half-inch or three-quarters of an inch of rain is expected Saturday night and Sunday, with a high Sunday of about 48.

The Associated Press contributed.