The Electric Company
No, not the TV show. This is about the actual electric service provider, DTE Energy. Sort of, anyhow.
This past Wednesday southeast Michigan was hit by a lot of wind. No, more than that. From the National Weather Service:A non thunderstorm event took place over the state on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, as high winds brought wind gusts in excess of 60 mph! The high winds took out power lines and trees, along with numerous reports of structural damage to buildings. There were also reports of brush fires and tractor-trailers flipped over around the area. Due to the extensive damage, many areas were without power for a few days. Approximately 700,000 DTE customers and approximately 260,000 plus Consumers Energy customers were affected. Keep in mind that one of the criteria for a severe thunderstorm warning is winds greater than or equal to 58 mph. The highest wind gust reported across Southeast Michigan was 68 mph at both Saginaw and Detroit Metro Airport. A High Wind Warning was in effect during this time across all of Southeast Michigan.
At home, I lost power briefly at 10:37am (I was at work and my home network became unreachable), but power was on when I got home at 1:17pm. It cut out hard at 3:11pm and stayed out, so around 9pm I left to go to work because I could lock myself in a windowless conference room with electricity and maybe get some sleep. (I can't sleep without the CPAP so electricity is a requirement.) All of the traffic lights between home and work were working normally. As it happens, sleeping on the winter jacket on the floor, with a (too short) blanket as cover and balled-up sweatshirt as pillow is... not the best idea. I got maybe 2 hours' worth of sleep all told before giving up at 3am, getting dressed, and going to my desk to start work.
I had a 10am meeting Thursday that ended at 11am. When it was over I headed home (still no power); ran out to lunch at the nearby pizza buffet (who had power; the cross-street I'm north of had the outage, but south of us was fine); got home; took out the trash, including the already-spoiled food from the fridge (Friday is trash day); threw some clothing, my meds, and the laptops into the car with the CPAP; and drove the 50 miles to Mom's to spend the night or weekend. I took a much-needed power nap, and then when she was home and prepping dinner I called my place as a test; sure enough, my answering machine picked up. So after dinner I headed home, getting in around 9pm. Brought the home network back up by 9:17pm, unpacked, and went to bed.
A few friends are still without power today. DTE is saying 90% of customers will be back up by 11:30pm Sunday (tomorrow).
So, with that as the background: I commend DTE the crews for working to get power back as quickly as possible. I'm not happy it happened, I'm not happy I had to throw out food (though if replacing it costs as much as $60 I'll be surprised), and I'm not happy it's still an ongoing concern. But they brought in crews from other states, they've been working round the clock to recover, and they've been reasonably communicative. I can't really complain.
This past Wednesday southeast Michigan was hit by a lot of wind. No, more than that. From the National Weather Service:A non thunderstorm event took place over the state on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, as high winds brought wind gusts in excess of 60 mph! The high winds took out power lines and trees, along with numerous reports of structural damage to buildings. There were also reports of brush fires and tractor-trailers flipped over around the area. Due to the extensive damage, many areas were without power for a few days. Approximately 700,000 DTE customers and approximately 260,000 plus Consumers Energy customers were affected. Keep in mind that one of the criteria for a severe thunderstorm warning is winds greater than or equal to 58 mph. The highest wind gust reported across Southeast Michigan was 68 mph at both Saginaw and Detroit Metro Airport. A High Wind Warning was in effect during this time across all of Southeast Michigan.
At home, I lost power briefly at 10:37am (I was at work and my home network became unreachable), but power was on when I got home at 1:17pm. It cut out hard at 3:11pm and stayed out, so around 9pm I left to go to work because I could lock myself in a windowless conference room with electricity and maybe get some sleep. (I can't sleep without the CPAP so electricity is a requirement.) All of the traffic lights between home and work were working normally. As it happens, sleeping on the winter jacket on the floor, with a (too short) blanket as cover and balled-up sweatshirt as pillow is... not the best idea. I got maybe 2 hours' worth of sleep all told before giving up at 3am, getting dressed, and going to my desk to start work.
I had a 10am meeting Thursday that ended at 11am. When it was over I headed home (still no power); ran out to lunch at the nearby pizza buffet (who had power; the cross-street I'm north of had the outage, but south of us was fine); got home; took out the trash, including the already-spoiled food from the fridge (Friday is trash day); threw some clothing, my meds, and the laptops into the car with the CPAP; and drove the 50 miles to Mom's to spend the night or weekend. I took a much-needed power nap, and then when she was home and prepping dinner I called my place as a test; sure enough, my answering machine picked up. So after dinner I headed home, getting in around 9pm. Brought the home network back up by 9:17pm, unpacked, and went to bed.
A few friends are still without power today. DTE is saying 90% of customers will be back up by 11:30pm Sunday (tomorrow).
So, with that as the background: I commend DTE the crews for working to get power back as quickly as possible. I'm not happy it happened, I'm not happy I had to throw out food (though if replacing it costs as much as $60 I'll be surprised), and I'm not happy it's still an ongoing concern. But they brought in crews from other states, they've been working round the clock to recover, and they've been reasonably communicative. I can't really complain.