67-year-old on oxygen still without power in Huntington Woods

HUNTINGTON WOODS, Mich. (WJBK) - It's been a week since metro Detroit was hit by the worst weather-related power in history. While many have the lights back on, some families are still in the dark.

One in participar is 67-year-old Jan Kobert in Huntington Woods. She's weathered many storms in her childhood home, but this most recent wind store is one of the most memorable -- and most frustrating -- by far.

She's among the nearly one million people who lost power when winds close to 70 mph blew through the area. To make matters worse, Kobert is on oxygen.

"I kept telling people, 'I'm on oxygen; I'm on oxygen.' It didn't matter to them because they don't have to experience it," she says. "I really have no place else to go. I have a cousin who lives in Berkley but he didn't have power either until Saturday night. It was probably safer for me to stay here."

Signs of Kobert's struggle can be seen inside and outside her house, which is near Newport Boulevard and Borgman Avenue. Some of her grocieries are now being kept on the back stairs. A generator is powering her other essentials: a space heater, her oxygen machine and a machine for her breathing treatments.

"It's very depressing and very stressful, and that's one of the triggers of COPD [Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease] to make it worse, is stress," she says.

Roughly three blocks around Koberts home remain without power, or, at times, had partial power stemming from last week's wicked weather. The windstorm created the most outages in DTE Energy's history.

"I've lived through the flood now. I lived through The Blackout back about 13 years ago. What are we missing - an ice storm? What's next?" Kobert wonders, smiling.

On Wednesday, a caravan of crews were seen near Kobert's home, working hard to get the lights back on for her and everyone else around here. They haven't given a timeline yet of when the power is expected to be restored.