Most Should Have Power Restored By Tuesday Night, 4 Days After 'Storm Of The Century'
DETROIT (WWJ) - DTE Energy officials say everyone who lost power during Friday's severe storms should have their electricity restored by Tuesday night.
About 41,000 homes and businesses remain without power Tuesday morning -- down from a high of 375,000 outages.
Check the DTE outage map, HERE.
Officials say the vast majority of customers will have their power restored by late Tuesday, although some small clusters of customers and individual service problems may not be restored until Wednesday.
Friday's storm has been called one of the most damaging to hit southeast Michigan in the past century. It brought 75 mph wind gusts, downing hundreds of trees and more than 4,000 power lines.
Wind damage across metro Detroit has meant widely scattered outages that require more attention, especially in western Wayne County.
"We're finding situations that are compounded by the fact that there are downed trees, possibly intertwined with wires and so, they're finding jobs now that require a lot more extensive work than initially in the restoration effort," said DTE Energy's Erica Donnelson. "There are only so many tree trim crews to go around and with the extensive damage that we saw, crews are stretched across our service area."
About 600 linemen from utilities in Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee are assisting in the restoration effort.
Donnelson said severe thunderstorms in the forecast for Wednesday might complicate things, especially because the storms carry the potential for damaging winds and heavy rains.
"Right now, we're just focused on getting those last customers restored as quickly and safely as possible," she said. "If severe weather comes through on Wednesday, we'll be ready."
Residents are being urged to stay at least 20 feet away of downed power lines and anything the lines are in contact with; Consider all downed wires to be live. To report a downed power line, call DTE Energy at 1-800-477-4747.
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