Closed for business, that’s the sign on Royal Oak City Hall. Still powerless, like many others in metro Detroit, at the mercy of Mother Nature and DTE.
“We’ve been down since Sunday 9:00 am, We brought in dry ice for our coolers. Now we’ve got a generator company coming to hook up our essential stuff,” says Manny Castanes, Manager of Lockhart’s BBQ.
It’s also been 3 days since 4th Street Auto Repair has been able to repair.
“As far as the shop power, the hoists, everything, are down. We can’t do work on vehicles,” says Bill Parter of 4th Street Auto Repair.
Both businesses say the DTE estimates they’ll be powerless a little longer.
“There’s potential that we won’t be back online until Wednesday night at 11:00 pm,” says Castanes.
That’s another full day in the dark and a lot more money down the drain.
“We have people calling, our phone lines are down, and it’s lost revenue to the restaurant and to the employees,” says Castanes.
The cost could be even higher for those living at Imperial Senior Suites in Southfield.
Rachelle Sloat is the legal guardian for her former neighbor who now lives in Imperial.
Over the phone she tells us she got a frightening call from the senior living center saying that her friend was taken to the hospital after falling in the dark.
“And they said we had to carry her down the stairs. And I said why did you have to carry her down the stairs? They said we had no electricity no power no water,” says Sloat.
“The workers are just saying, it’s so cold in here I’m wearing my winter coat, and there’s no lights. It’s an 8 story building, no elevator,” says Sloat. Her loved one is safe and being treated in the hospital but she’s worried for the other senior citizens still living there, without heat and without lights for the third cold night in a row.
“How can you not have a generator when you run a senior citizen building?"
DTE tells 7 Action News that crews have been working on the circuit that supplies power to Imperial Senior Suites in Southfield since 10:00 am Tuesday morning, but the fix is more complicated than expected.
They are hoping to have the power on by Tuesday night, but aren't sure that will happen.
7 Action News tried calling Imperial Senior Suites multiple times during business hours but no one is answering the phone and the voicemail is full.
Our crew saw a couple shuttles leaving the building along with two ambulances without sirens.
Rachelle Sloat says an Imperial worker told her that some families were picking up their relatives and a nurse at Providence Hospital told her they are admitting a lot of the residents from Imperial Senior Suites.
