WeatherFanatics: Downtown Detroit Faces Major Blackout; Hundreds Evacuated in Frigid Air

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Downtown Detroit Faces Major Blackout; Hundreds Evacuated in Frigid Air

By Katy Galimberti, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

December 2,2014; 8:38PM,EST

Downtown Detroit was struck by a massive power outage on Tuesday morning as officials reported the entire first precinct was without electricity on a chilly day.
As early afternoon Tuesday, more than 100 customers were still without power according to DTE Energy. Outages were reported across government and municipal buildings as well as area schools. A cable failure is expected to be the cause.
According to the city's facebook page, more than 900 customer locations were impacted, which included the outage of 740 traffic signals. Police stations were also forced to use generators and 36 fire stations experienced outages. The city's 911 dispatch never lost power.
In a press conference held shortly after 2 p.m., Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said power had been restored to one third of customers. DTE officials were working to restore power through Tuesday. By late Tuesday evening, DTE reported that power had been restored to the majority of the area, according to the utility's outage reports.
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The Detroit Free Press reported that all fire stations in the metro area were without power but were still able to receive landline calls.

Street lights fell dark on Tuesday morning when a widespread power outage struck downtown Detroit. (Photo/Steve Caladiao)
All Detroit Public Schools were dismissed early due to the outage. Nearby Wayne State University also reported some buildings being affected by the outage. Classes at the main campus continued as normal until 12:45 p.m. when the university issued an alert canceling the remainder of classes and activities for the day.
Several government buildings had to be evacuated, and workers were left waiting outside of buildings and along sidewalks. With air temperatures in the upper 20s to mid-30s, AccuWeather RealFeel® temperatures are closer to the 20s according to AccuWeather Senior Vice President and Meteorologist Dr. Joe Sobel.
If the problem persists past sundown, temperatures will drop but no adverse weather is expected.
Sobel said there is a small chance of a freezing drizzle, but snow or rain will not make a presence to disrupt any recovery work.
Mild winds of 10-15 mph could linger into the evening, but nothing strong enough to interfere with any line restoration according to Sobel.