DETROIT – Recent storms in Michigan left nearly a million households without power Thursday.
Read: Nearly a million Michigan households lose power -- Why does this keep happening?
DTE Energy and Consumers Energy crews have been working to restore power to the region. Both companies estimate restoration work completed by the end of the weekend.
A car that had collided with a power pole on M-59 was repaired in about a half an hour Friday. DTE crew foreman Tom Swayne said while it needed attention, not everything in an emergency.
“People think that if they call in a downed power line they’re ‘Oh, it’s going help me get my power quicker.’ It actually slows the process because we have to go check a downed power line no matter what,” Swayne said.
In addition to the normal repairs, there is the roadway issue -- why aren’t there back up power generators for the road pumps that fail when the power goes out?
DTE president Trevor Lauer likens the problem to another critical infrastructure issue they’ve actually resolved.
“A great example is the hospital systems. We know exactly which hospital system, what their back up generation is and -- if they don’t have back up generation -- what additional lines do we need to feed them with so we need to do some of that same infrastructure coordination with other organizations,” Lauer said.
He added there are three things DTE Energy needs to do going forward: prepare for more storms, reinforce the infrastructure and trim the branches around the wires.
Lauer said he intends to sit down with the Great Lakes Water Authorities and the Michigan Department of Transportation to try to get the sorely needed generator issues resolved.
You can see the DTE Energy Outage Map here.