Power outages linger into Labor Day after severe weather in Metro Detroit

Thousands of Southeast Michigan residents remained without power Monday morning as cleanup continues from last week's severe weather.

DTE's outage map showed 9,469 Southeast Michigan customers without power as of 10:25 a.m. Monday, some of whom had been without power for over four days. The outages were scattered across DTE's service area in Metro Detroit, with Oakland and Livingston counties having the most remaining outages.

That's a significant improvement in the overall numbers. DTE Energy Senior Vice President of Electric Operations Brian Claka said last week that starting with the severe weather on Wednesday, a total of about 450,000 customers were affected.    

But the utility company said it expected power to be restored to all impacted customers by the end of Sunday, and estimates shown on the outage map on Monday morning indicated some might not see power until Monday evening.  

Power outage bill credits

Michigan utility companies are required by law to credit customers $42 a day for expenses related to long-duration power outages. But it takes 2 days or more without power to qualify in most circumstances.

The eligibility requirements for an automatic power outage credit are as follows: 

96 hours during catastrophic conditions, defined as a utility having 10% or more of its customers without power.  

48 hours of gray-sky conditions that affect between 1% and 10% of a utility's customers. 

16 hours during normal conditions. 

Power outages and SNAP benefits

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says families who purchased food with SNAP assistance, but lost electricity for at least four hours due to a power outage, may be eligible to receive some of their money back.

Those impacted must contact their local MDHHS office, apply within 10 days of the outage, detail what they lost, including the dollar amount, and provide proof of power loss to receive new funds.