Nearly 2,000 DTE customers in Oakland County lost power early Wednesday
About 2,000 DTE customers in Southeast Michigan were without electricity for a few hours on Wednesday morning.
Most of the affected customers are in the Oakland County community of Wixom, where about 1,900 customers lost power at 2:51 a.m. as the result of an equipment problem, according to the DTE outage map. Restoration was reported shortly after 7 a.m.
If you lose power, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said to keep any refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to preserve fresh and frozen food.
Refrigerated foods will generally be safe as long as the power is not out for more than a few hours and the refrigerator door remains closed. Perishable refrigerated food such as dairy products and meats should be thrown out if the temperature goes above 40 F for more than two hours.
A full freezer that remains closed will stay at freezing temperatures for about two days, a half-full freezer for about one day, state officials said.
Despite temperatures that have been below freezing this week, the agriculture department has a caution about placing food outdoors.
"Long-term storage of food outside or in the snow is not advised. Outside temperatures can vary by the hour even if snow is falling, causing the temperature of foods to fluctuate," state officials said.
The above video originally aired Dec. 30.