WESTLAND, Mich. – More than 97% of power has been restored to customers, but it still means that three percent are without. One woman was given false hope when DTE said her power was restored.
In Karen Lannoo’s Westland neighborhood, you could hear generators buzzing as several homeowners prepared for the sixth night without power.
“We have no relief,” said Lannoo while wearing her winter coat to stay warm in her home. “It’s miserable.”
Lannoo was optimistic over the weekend when she saw crews in and out of her neighborhood. She watched the homes across from her Lynx Street home have their power restored Sunday (Feb. 26) evening, and she was disappointed when crews left without restoring everyone’s power.
“There’s no excuse for DTE not to be able to get the power back on after this long,” Lannoo said.
Lannoo is one of about 45,000 DTE customers who remain without power Monday night following Wednesday’s ice storm.
Adding to Lannoo’s frustration was the update she got from DTE saying her service had been restored when it hadn’t.
“I received an email communication saying my power had been restored, but they couldn’t read my meter,” Lannoo said. “Of course, the reason for that was it hadn’t been restored.”
Lannoo says she had to go through the process of reporting the outage again, and she continues to wait. She says she and her neighbors deserve better.
“This was one ice storm,” Lannoo said. “Yes, it was bad, but why, a week later, can you still be in the dark in the cold? In the winter? That’s not acceptable to me, and it’s not acceptable to my neighbors.”
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