Wild weather leaves 900,000 without power in US and beyond as rain turns to ice

Freezing rain swept through Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada's most populous province on Sunday, causing widespread power outages as trees and power lines were brought down across the upper Great Lakes region.
Thousands of people were left without electricity, while forecasters warned of severe weather heading towards Tennessee. The National Weather Service predicted winds of up to 70 mph (112 kph), along with the potential for tornadoes and hail up to 2 inches (5 centimetres) by Sunday night.

«Make sure your safe place is ready just in case,» forecasters advised via a post on X (formerly Twitter).

By Sunday evening, approximately 360,000 customers were without power in Michigan, with another 62,000 outages reported in Wisconsin and more than 110,000 in Indiana. In Ontario, over 400,000 customers were affected, reported NYT.

Authorities get in action

As utilities worked to restore power, warming centres were set up in churches, schools, and fire halls to help those affected, with full restoration expected to take until Monday in rural and smaller communities.

Live Events

The Weather Service in Gaylord, Michigan, warned of significant ice accumulation, with some areas seeing up to an inch of ice.
Meanwhile, in Ontario, images on social media showed ice-covered trees blocking roads.

Four people were also seriously injured near Ottawa after two cars slid into a ditch during the storm, and Ontario Provincial Police advised drivers to «SLOW DOWN» and avoid nonessential travel.

Authorities warned that more than 1 million people in parts of Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Wisconsin were under an ice storm warning.

Witness accounts

Despite it being spring, Ryan Brege, managing director of the