EDITORS NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect the number of customers who have had their power restored since it was originally posted.
DTE Energy says as of Thursday afternoon, there remain almost 70,000 customers without power in metro Detroit. So how long is it going to get everyone back up and running?
“I want to assure our customers, we have over 3,000 employees working around the clock to get the power back on. That includes 2,000 line workers. Both DTE and contract workers from around Michigan and the country that we brought in,” said Matt Paul, DTE Electric Executive Vice President of Distribution Operations.
Paul says Thursday morning DTE had power back on to about 60% of people who lost service during this week’s severe storm.
By the end of Thursday, it expects to have power back on to 80% of them. Sometime Friday power should be back on to nearly all, aside from what DTE calls singles.
“(Singles are) outages where we have significant damage, but there is only one or two customers impacted,” said Paul.
DTE Energy is asking people to stay 20 feet away from power lines for safety reasons. A Monroe teen lost her life on Monday after touching a downed line by accident and two children in Warren were injured.
