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November 14, 2003Strong winds topple trees, knock out powerForecast calls for sunny skies, middle 40sByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - A wintry wallop greeted the region late Wednesday, toppling hundreds of trees and leaving thousands without power. James and Rosie Laukhart suffered a blow when a 100-year-old maple fell on their Division Street home and a large pine crashed into their garage.
The Laukharts didn't lose power, but Consumers Energy said at least 9,350 customers near Cadillac, Honor, Manistee and Traverse City did. Almost 5,000 Cherryland Electric Cooperative customers throughout the region also were affected. Cherryland spokesman Nick Edson said service was restored to most customers by mid-morning, but 1,300 remained without power Thursday afternoon. "With the wind the way it is, we're not making a dent," he said Thursday morning. "More are coming down." Corey Chaskelson with the National Weather Service in Gaylord said strong winds began in the evening and eventually gained enough power to create blizzard conditions. Temperatures remained in the upper 20s and low 30s while rain, snow and small hail continued throughout the night. Chaskelson said the peak wind gust in Traverse City was 48 mph just before 6 a.m. today while a 77 mph blast was recorded just after 11 p.m. Wednesday near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. High winds continued Thursday but were expected to die off by nightfall and into the morning. "We're looking at mostly sunny skies and highs in the middle 40s for Friday," Chaskelson said. The storm kept road commissions in Grand Traverse, Wexford, Manistee, Benzie and Leelanau counties busy into Thursday afternoon. All counties reported several downed trees in and around roads. In Wexford County, road commission manager Alan Cooper said efforts to remove the trees began as early as 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. "We've had over 30 trees so far," he said Thursday morning. "We're just getting them off the road and the work could run into next week." Traverse City Light and Power reported about two dozen outages in town and near the Brown Bridge and River Road area. "We're still investigating tree limbs that have fallen over," system operator Brad Purcell said. "But most of the power remained on through the night." Great Lakes Energy also reported 40,000 outages in its Boyne City-based 26 county service area.
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