Some schools closed as power remains out for 3,500 in Washtenaw County
(Note: This story was updated after DTE corrected its numbers on the outages.)
Power remained out for about 3,500 customers of DTE Energy in Washtenaw County Thursday morning after a winter storm packing heavy snow and freezing rain brought down trees and power limbs overnight Tuesday.
That number is down from 17,000 at about 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Dexter and Ypsilanti Public Schools were closed as a result. Ann Arbor Tech High School was also closed.
Several charter and private schools were also closed, including Oak Trails in Ann Arbor; and Fortis Academy and South Arbor Academy in the Ypsilanti area.
A DTE spokesman said the utility expected to have the power back on for all customers by the end of Thursday.
Power outages appeared to be scattered throughout the area. The most significant outages appeared to be in Pittsfield Township and in areas to the west and northwest of Ann Arbor. You can check the DTE Power Outage Map for updates.
Ypsilanti schools were without power at the middle and high schools. Since lunch for all schools is prepared at the high school, the district closed all schools for the day. Four buildings in Dexter Community Schools were without power, the district said.
Power outages are shown in shaded areas on the map. Brown areas are those with 1,500 to 2,500 customers without power. Yellow areas indicate 500 to 1,500 without power. Green areas have 100 to 500 customers without power. Purple areas have fewer than 100 without power.
Comments
dexterreader
Fri, Mar 1, 2013 : 1:29 p.m.
The map is nowhere near accurate. I live in Dexter and the map clearly showed me in a "no-power" area, which was completely untrue. I've come to the conclusion the map is only to show outages in a very broad sense and pinpointing specific locations accurately is virtually impossible.
A2comments
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 7:59 p.m.
Just got a call from DTE - pre-recorded, saying the outage that we had in the Plymouth Rd / Dixboro Road area was due to a fault in the underground transformer at Amanda Drive. After I hung up, I realized that this is likely the open excavated area that has been like that for close to 6 months, maybe longer. Is it possible that due to works leaving it unprotected that caused the fault and we lost power for 13 hours?
justcurious
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 6:33 p.m.
The map is whacko. It now shows us without power but we aren't! Knock on wood...
MRunner73
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 5:18 p.m.
My area was restored at least 8 hours ahead of time. Power was restored sometime around 3 PM after it went out around 3: 30 AM.
Machine
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:34 p.m.
DTE originally indicated my power would be restored by 11 PM last night. No such luck. Their contractors came out, trimmed some trees and left by about 9 PM without finishing the job. They now say it will be back by 11 PM tonight. I really hope they come through this time.
MRunner73
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 5:16 p.m.
Wow! My area was restored by 3:00 PM Wednesday and had the same reconnect time of 11 PM. I feel very fortunate. Very sorry to hear some of you will loose another full dayw/o power.
justcurious
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:11 p.m.
We're lucky. Our power came back on at 6:45pm last night. But a couple houses west of us is a huge green lake of outage. I'm also wondering about the accuracy of the map.
Cindy Heflin
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:06 p.m.
I've added a link to DTE's power outage map and an image of the current version of the map.
snoopjane
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:44 p.m.
Live on Pearl near Mansfield in Ypsi. It is so sporatic how it is coming back on. Next block down has it, next street over has it...etc...etc...etc.. You would think they would do whole "sections" at a time....wouldn't you?????
YpsiLivin
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:19 p.m.
We live in the neighborhood south of the high school. Our power was restored at about 6:45 PM yesterday evening. The street and traffic lights were on and working at Packard and Hewitt throughout the storm. When we drove past the HS at 7:45 PM yesterday, it appeared as though the lights were on in and around the building. I'm not calling shenanigans, but I am surprised to learn that the high school had no power, since the rest of the neighborhood was restored yesterday.
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 11:50 p.m.
Back up and giving thanks.
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 8:25 p.m.
Ouch. That's almost worse than it just staying off.
keri
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 8:07 p.m.
On the west side of Hewitt, the power went back on for about two minutes at about 6:45p and then went back off. And is still off.
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 5:23 p.m.
And initially I was glad that we still had power while the south side didn't! I sure wish there'd only been an hour's difference in the restore time. It was a long night listening to tree limbs crash down all around the house.
YpsiLivin
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 5:14 p.m.
I think our power went out just past 10:00 PM. Not sure. Couldn't see the clock. :) Initially, I was jealous that Midvale still had power. Now, not so much! (I guess the quickest route between the first and third worlds runs through the local electric utility.)
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:47 p.m.
Yep, I noticed that too. I think the south side was out by 9:30 or so, while the north side went out just past 11. DTE said they sent out a crew for this problem at 8 this morning, so I'm hoping!
YpsiLivin
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:35 p.m.
My condolences. :( (Being on a different line makes sense though because we could see houses on the north side of Midvale that still had power after we lost ours.)
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:12 p.m.
Not completely accurate. I am on the north side of Midvale and we were still out as of 8am this morning while the south side of the street now has power. Must be on a different circuit.
WalkingJoe
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 2:51 p.m.
Did DTE consult their own outage map before giving the 1,300 figure? There is 2 large areas in Pittsfield Township alone that add up to over 3,000. I'm not one to bash DTE right now as I know they have a big task right now but this seems a little misleading.
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 4:13 p.m.
The outage map is useless. My power's been out since 11pm Tuesday and according to that map we're not in any outage zone.
liekkio
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:29 p.m.
This map is not to be trusted, and it is more than "a little misleading". All day yesterday DTE promised to fix the problem at the large area including Earhart Road, Glazier Way and Concordia by 11pm. Around 10:30 this outage was removed form the map and the answering machine at DTE reported that the problem was solved. If you look at the outage map now, there is a number of small outages in the same area. Power is supposedly "Off Since: Wed Feb 27 2013, 10:21 PM". This is a false statement; the power went off at 3am on Wednesday and never got restored.
Rico
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:01 p.m.
I am checking on the outage for the 48105 zip code and around 9:40 they showed 924 customers without power. Near 10:00 the number went up to 926. What gives?
PhillyCheeseSteak
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 2:35 p.m.
"A DTE spokesman said the utility expected to have the power back on for all customers by the end of Thursday." Hmmm...the DTE spokesperson I talked to this morning gave me an estimate of 3:30 a.m. March 1st for our power to be restored. (I live in the city, in an established neighborhood built in the 1950s, not out in the country.) As Washtenaw County was one of the hardest hit areas, as far as power outages, I wonder if DTE is getting extra help from other regional electrical companies?
Shadeau
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 11:49 p.m.
Yep, I saw two Toledo Edison trucks in downtown AA this afternoon.
Cash
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 9:15 p.m.
I saw 5 "Toledo Edison Co" trucks in a row headed east on Washtenaw at noon, near Golfside. So I'd say DTE is getting help.
Chase Ingersoll
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 1:26 p.m.
Ypsilanti Public Schools - just lost more students to charter schools with this notice on their website: NO SCHOOL - Due to lingering power outages at the Middle school and High school, we are forced to close ALL schools again today, THURSDAY, February 28. Since breakfast and lunches are prepared at the high school building and shipped to other buildings, this power outage has forced us to close schools again. DTE continues to work around the clock trying to restore power to our schools and we are hopeful that school will resume tomorrow. Out of 20 possible school days in February, Ypsilanti schools will have been open for less than half of those days. But the taxpayer still paid and the teachers and administrators still collected.
cancan
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 9:16 p.m.
New Tech does not have a kitchen, therefore food is prepared at YHS and shipped over to New Tech each day.
Waterweasel
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 6:53 p.m.
Don't worry folks.....you can read more of Chase's wit and informed knowledge here: http://twelvetwentyseven.blogspot.com/
JRW
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 6:41 p.m.
The problem is that they are using the high school building to prepare breakfast and lunches for other schools. Are there NO kitchens in an elementary or middle school in Ypsi? I doubt this. All schools have kitchens. And the staff to serve breakfasts and lunches work in all school buildings. Relying on one building for food prep, and then transporting the food to all the other schools is not the most efficient way to do things, to say the least. Especially when it results in all buildings being closed because of this bad policy.
dading dont delete me bro
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 6:07 p.m.
"Out of 20 possible school days in February, Ypsilanti schools will have been open for less than half of those days. But the taxpayer still paid and the teachers and administrators still collected." i'd love to see where you get your info. so 11 or more days 'off or closed' ? if they had a winter break in there, that's 5 days. i can recall 1 or 2 snow days, plus today...so that makes 8 at most. even IF there was a winter break in there, those days are already figured into yearly salaries...
dancinginmysoul
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 5:36 p.m.
So should I start sending my electric bill payment to the school district I live in? Since, according to you, it's the school district's responsibility to maintain the power in my home. Totally makes sense.
catfishrisin
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:32 p.m.
Poor Chase having to pay all these teachers
mibadger
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 3:08 p.m.
And there was also the mid-winter break for a week in February, so your statistics are misleading. "Figures don't lie, but liars figure."
SMAIVE
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 2:55 p.m.
Yep, sure glad to know charter schools keep their kids starving and sitting in dark and cold classrooms...
Useless
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 2:35 p.m.
How can you be angry about this? So a storm knocks out the power and you blame the school district?
a2roots
Thu, Feb 28, 2013 : 2:06 p.m.
@chase...Yup, makes perfect sense to slam the teachers for this. Why blame mother nature or DTE?