DTE Outages in Southeast Michigan: 65,000+ without power with incoming winter weather
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Five days since power was knocked out for a large chunk of Metro Detroit and tens of thousands of homes still don't have electricity.
According to DTE's outage center, more than 65,000 customers still don't have power in Southeast Michigan. The outage center also says there's more than 4,000 workers in the field.
DTE Vice President Ryan Stowe said that just under 30,000 customers from the initial storm are still without power. About 10,000 new outages have been added from Monday's weather. Stowe said icing north of M-59 is having an impact on power.
Monday morning, DTE said, "The vast majority of the remaining customers without power to be restored by the end of day Tuesday."
You can find the outage map here. It shows outages across the region, from thousands in an around Ann Arbor and Detroit to hundreds in northern Oakland County and several thousand more in Monroe County.
The utility originally had estimated to have 95% of its customers to have power back by the end of Sunday. Even with that timeline, tens of thousands will likely need to deal with one more day of winter weather before their heat comes back on.
A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Livingston, Shiawassee, Oakland and Macomb counties until 8 p.m. that include combinations of snow, rain, and sleet.
While last week's winter weather affected people in several states, Michigan had the highest concentration of outages after more than half a million reported losing power in DTE's area alone. Consumers Energy also reported hundreds of thousands of customers without electricity.
The power failure is already being used by lawmakers as fodder against the state's utilities.
"Nearly a million have suffered without heat & electricity because two utility companies put their profits above investing in the grid," wrote Hamtramck Rep. Abraham Aiyah. "I’m calling on Consumers Energy and DTE to pay customers back for lost food and medicine and reimburse them for outage time."
Aiyash wrote on Twitter that legislation was currently being drafted.
How to check DTE's outage map
DTE is tracking the outages with its outage map that updates as power outages are reported. Find the DTE Energy map here.
DTE services much of Southeast Michigan and tracks outages based throughout the area. On the company's page, it will enclose businesses and residents in different shades. Purple indicates 99 or fewer customers without power, green is 100-500, yellow is 501-1,500, orange is 1,501 to 2,500, and red is 2,501 or more.
More: How to apply for reimbursement from DTE, Consumers Energy
On the outage map, you can search by address to see if there's an outage in your neighborhood. If you're experiencing an outage and it's not listed on DTE's site, you can report it by clicking ‘report outage’.
Also on DTE's map, you can report a downed power line, review the status of your outage, which includes when it will be estimated to be restored.