Power outages linger in Southeast Michigan amid dangerous heat wave

Thousands of Metro Detroit residents were left without power overnight and into Wednesday morning after an outage that began Tuesday evening during a stretch of dangerous summer heat.

According to DTE Energy, more than 5,000 customers across Metro Detroit were without power Wednesday morning. One of the largest outages was centered near 12 Mile and Dequindre roads in Warren.

Residents in the area said going without electricity for hours made for a long and uncomfortable night.

"We've been hanging out in the basement. It was kind of an emergency situation," said Warren resident Victoria Wardia.

Wardia also expressed concern about the health risks associated with spending extended periods without air conditioning.

"It's very problematic, and I'm kind of worried with the extreme overheating," Wardia said. "People can die, and animals can die."

Kimberly Mackowitz said her power had been out for more than 14 hours by Wednesday morning. She said the outage made it difficult to sleep and created additional challenges as she cared for her young grandchildren.

"It went out about 6:30, and I had my grandchildren here, so that didn't make it any better — a 10-month-old and a 3-year-old," Mackowitz said. "So I had to go get some dry ice. I've been sitting in my car a little bit, charging my phone, and I have a 14-year-old that's been in there with me. That's been rough."

DTE reported that an equipment issue at a nearby substation caused the outage. The utility said it remains unclear whether extreme heat played a role in the outage.

As crews worked to restore service, DTE said its operators were monitoring the power grid around the clock and had crews staged and ready to respond to outages during the heat.

The utility estimated that power would be restored to affected customers by late Wednesday morning.