Detroit father shields newborn daughter as tree crashes onto home during storms

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Residents in Detroit are picking up the pieces after severe storms rolled through Southeast Michigan Thursday evening. 

Detroit home damaged by falling tree

Big picture view:

Among the damage was a home that was crushed by a tree. Inside was a father and his newborn baby girl. The house is located on West Parkway, off of McNichols.

FOX 2 talked to the baby’s grandmother, who tells us her son used his body as a shield to protect his newborn daughter.

They were in a bedroom at the time. 

Both were rushed to an area hospital and miraculously, they are going to be okay.

There were some other trees down in the neighborhood but nothing of this magnitude. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of households are without power.

Southeast Michigan power outages

Local perspective:

DTE Director of Operations Jerry Tullio spoke at a press conference Thursday afternoon, saying 80% of customers impacted by the first wave of the storm can expect to see service restored by the end of the day on Thursday. 

As of 2:40 p.m., 110,000+ customers lacked power.

The most significant storm damage impacting service was seen along the I-96 corridor, according to Tullio.

It was also noted that more storms were coming in later in the evening and that DTE would be prepared for this. The team has 400 linemen from out of state assisting, with another 800 on their way later Thursday afternoon.

Tornado Warnings in Metro Detroit

Dig deeper:

All of Southeast Michigan was under a tornado threat late Thursday. The National Weather Service issued warnings for the entire region, ending the alert by 4:45 p.m.

The warnings stretched along the I-96, I-275, and US-23 highways. 

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