Community Corner

UPDATE: Power Could Be Out Until Saturday

"It looks like we won't be back to normal until late Saturday night," DTE spokeswoman Eileen Dixon said Thursday. "But, that's based on the premise we're not going to get any more bad weather."

DTE has whittled away at the power outages that began Wednesday evening in Huntington Woods, but another storm overnight knocked out power to hundreds of customers in Berkley and the utility doesn't expect to have service restored until this weekend.

As of 1 p.m. Thursday, DTE spokeswoman Eileen Dixon said 210,000 customers were without power in southeast Michigan, including 904 in Berkley and 652 in Huntington Woods, according to DTE's outage map.

DTE spokesman Scott Simons said the utility had reduced the southeast Michigan outage number from storms that blew through Tuesday to 17,000 before a Wednesday evening storm hit, followed by what DTE experienced as the most severe storm of the week overnight.

Find out what's happening in Huntington Woods-Berkleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

forced the cancellation of all Fourth of July activities at in Huntington Woods, but over went off as planned.

All of DTE's crews are working 16-hour shifts and around the clock, Dixon said, and the utliity has recalled 100 linemen who were sent to Ohio to help with repairs after storms there last week.

Find out what's happening in Huntington Woods-Berkleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It looks like we won't be back to normal until late Saturday night," she said. "But, that's based on the premise we're not going to get any more bad weather."

The National Weather Service has forecast a chance of thunderstorms Thursday, Friday and Saturday for Huntington Woods and Berkley.

"We've got more than 1,000 power lines down," in southeast Michigan, Dixon said Thursday. "It's a big job ahead of us."

That is bad news for those who lost power and, with it, air conditioning, as the week's heat wave is expected to continue at least until Saturday. The NWS has issued an excessive heat warning through Friday and predicts a high near 98 degrees Thursday and 103 degrees Friday.

"Heat-related illness such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion and dehydration will be possible," the NWS warned.

The forecasting agency urges those who must spend time outside to take the following precautions:

  • Reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening.
  • Wear light-weight and loose-fitting clothing
  • Drink plenty of water.
  • Take frequent breaks in shaded or air-conditioned environments.

"Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location," the forecasting agency advised. "Heat stroke is an emergency – call 911."

The and , which normally serve as a shelter for those without air conditioning, were closed Thursday because they were without power. The city's pool also was closed and Fruit Camps were canceled, rec center Director Nancy Waldmann added.

Berkley residents who need to can keep cool at the or , which were open and had power Thursday.


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