Storm Closes 4 Detroit Highways; Lodge Drivers Rescued from Submerged Vehicles

Metro Detroit was a chaotic mess Thursday morning with flooded roads, shut highways, accidents and hours-long commutes. Cars on the Lodge Freeway under are underwater and emergency responders saved people from three submerged vehicles.

Parts of four freeways -- I-75, I-94, the Lodge and the Southfield --are closed. Mike Campbell of WWJ tweets dramatic photos and video, embedded below.

Photo from Fox 2 video

His station reports:

Motorists had to be rescued from their vehicles Thursday morning after torrential downpours caused extreme flooding on the Lodge Freeway under Cobo Center in Detroit.

Detroit Police spokesman Michael Woody has a message for anyone heading downtown via the Lodge Freeway, M-10.

“Anybody who is on the Lodge Freeway coming southbound into the downtown area, please make your way to some of the surface streets. There’s flooding the closer you get to the downtown area,” he said.

The flooding is especially bad underneath the Cobo Center, where some vehicles are nearly completely underwater. . . .

Even heavy construction equipment that was brought in to remove the waterlogged vehicles ended up getting stuck in the flood waters.

The Lodge Freeway at Jefferson on Monday morning. (Twitter photo by Mike Campbell, WWJ)

The National Weather Service extended flash flood warnings through 2:15 p.m. Thursday for parts of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties "due to a persistent band of thunderstorms."

Locations at risk included Warren, Livonia, Troy, Southfield, Taylor, St. Clair Shores, Novi, Romulus, Grosse Pointe, Detroit, Canton, Sterling Heights, Dearborn, Royal Oak, Wyandotte, Birmingham, Northville, Westland and Farmington Hills.

WWJ quotes State Police Lt. Mike Shaw:

“There were three vehicles that were actually trapped underneath Cobo Hall. Troopers and local fire were able to get all three of those parties out..”

Twitter is awash in posts about the situation., A sampling:

Detroit fire squad stuck in flood water at Harding and E. Warren. pic.twitter.com/xkJsKYOBYt
— Motor City Muckraker (@MCmuckraker) September 29, 2016

Haven't seen any flooding too bad off the Grand River corridor. Nothing like at Cadillac and Canfield #DetroitFlood pic.twitter.com/xgJceaLHgY
— James David Dickson (@downi94) September 29, 2016

Rescue X 2: car stuck in flooded Lodge N underpass at Cobo; wrecker crew heavy eq't gets stuck. @WWJ950 pic.twitter.com/jMs0aaeiaq
— Mike Campbell (@reportermikec) September 29, 2016

Flooded: M-10 Lodge N under Cobo in Dwntwn Detroit. @WWJ950 pic.twitter.com/IongLH84Co
— Mike Campbell (@reportermikec) September 29, 2016

police check stranded motorists.https://t.co/d81WIlnWbc @FerndalePolice pic.twitter.com/przcbyS8iG
— Laura Bonnell (@LBonnellWWJ) September 29, 2016

TRAFFIC ALERT: More flooding problems -- Northbound M-39 at Michigan is now closed due to water over the roadway. https://t.co/5lYVyyeAWt
— WWJ950 (@WWJ950) September 29, 2016

Cars are stranded in flood water on Detroit's side streets on the east side. pic.twitter.com/mOIIislnSK
— Motor City Muckraker (@MCmuckraker) September 29, 2016