461K DTE customers remain without power, with estimated restoration of Sunday for many

DTE gives update on power outages

DTE Electricity President Trevor Lauer said crews will be assigned to some 200,000 customers Friday as the utility works to restore power to some 461,000 homes left without power after an ice storm on Wednesday.

FOX 2 (WJBK) - It’s day two of power outages after a historic winter ice storm from frozen southeast Michigan. Early Friday morning, there was still 461,376 DTE Energy customers without electricity.

DTE says its storm response team will be in the field until all customers are restored. Most customers won’t be back up and running until Sunday.

School closings: Numerous districts are closed for Friday, Feb. 24. See the list here.

"We have additional crews coming in for restoration," said Trevor Lauer. "The weather is turning in (our) favor. It is getting colder this weekend but it's going to be good weather to restore customers. We have a big team going and DTE and the rest of the utilities in the state are working actively on that."

Generators, warming shelters and patience key as ice storm power restoration wait continues

It’s day two of power outages after a late winter ice storm from frozen southeast Michigan. Late Thursday night, there was still 502,000 DTE Energy customers without electricity.

Jaye Jackson and Gregory Lane, have had enough. The two grabbed a pair of the last generators at the Lowe’s hardware store in Southfield Thursday.

"I've been through too many winters of suffering, losing food, being cold, gotta go to a hotel, calling friends," said Lane. "It's just too much."

CLICK HERE for the DTE Outage Map.

Joe Sanfilippo was buying a propane heater. He just wants to keep his water supply from freezing.

FOX 2: What happens when your well freezes?"

Oh boy, first of all, big money," he said. "They have to dig it up because it's 50 feet down and it costs a lot of money to do. And you need water for everything.

"So it's imperative that I get heat under the house tonight, and make sure that it stays above freezing."

Allen Park using lone school building with electricity as warming shelter

Hundreds of thousands of residents are without power across southeast Michigan as temperatures plummet.

The outages mounted by the minute Wednesday and Thursday. Stop signs have now been placed through powerless intersections.

Businesses without backup power are closed - and when night falls entire neighborhoods are plunged into darkness.

"I just hope everyone is fortunate enough to stay warm and not be freezing tonight, even if they’re in a home," said Tracy Kielb.

Tracy and Tim Kielb are just two of thousands without power in Livonia. The recreation center there is doubling as warming center in light of it.

"I really appreciate they have it open for not just showers, but they offered cots," said Edward McCall. "They are really stepping up for the community."

Bennie Elementary School is the only building in the Allen Park school district that has power right now. It is being used as a warming station for residents.

"We decided we wanted to stay warm," said Pat Schuman. "We went to the YMCA and walked around their track. We did about a half-mile and then their power went out. So they closed that."

More: Michigan football's Jim Harbaugh helps police clear fallen tree in ice storm

Getting chilly for a re-freeze Friday

Rich Luterman has the forecast.

Robin Partrich, the building engineer for Allen Park Schools, helped come up with the idea.

"We're not looking at getting our power restored until probably Sunday," she said. "I texted the superintendent and said we need to do the right thing here and open our building up for a warming center."

See a downed line? Assume every line is active and live, and stay 25 feet away. Report it to DTE HERE.

Ice storm damage found across Southfield including near 10 Mile, Evergreen

Hundreds of thousands of DTE Energy customers were left without power with trees and wires down. Southfield was no exception to the area with a line down and massive tree lying across the intersection at Goldwin Street and Red River Drive, near 10 Mile and Evergreen.