Mark Brown lost power last Thursday morning at his home in Southfield.
“By Saturday night, I was like something gotta give because by that time, the food in my freezer started to melt,” Brown said.
A single father of three, Brown was able to stay at his mother’s house. That’s where he received several emails saying the power was about to be back on.
Read: Michigan AG calls on DTE, Consumers to automatically credit customers amid power outages
“Then I was getting an email it was going to be restored Saturday night, then an email later and says sorry it’ll be restored Sunday. Then it went to Monday, Tuesday and then Wednesday,” he said.
Lathrup Village Mayor Kelly Garrett and Southfield Mayor Ken Siver launched a petition on MoveOn.org in an effort to put some pressure on DTE Energy.
“Little towns like ours, we’re suffering. There’s no reason we’re doing nine days without power,” Garrett said. “You have to be accountable to these people who have to throw away their food, have to figure out where to say. I can even tell you all of the people who’ve said they have now invested in generators. So where’s your accountability?”
“We understand we’ve had some severe weather events but at same time, a good 40 % of outages are equipment failures,” Siver said.
Garrett and Siver said they hope it will lead to a town hall with DTE and customers -- many whom have lost faith in utility.
“No way to address DTE, and the people want to be heard,” Siver said. “I want to believe they’re people of goodwill, but my people are angry. They’re angry, they’re sick of this and more needs to be done.”