A look into city of Wyandotte's public power and its impact during storm response

Last week's storm caused widespread outages across Metro Detroit, leaving many in the dark for days.

In Wyandotte, however, power was restored within one day for most residents.

"We were able to respond to the storm as we have consistently done over the years," said Wyandotte Municipal Services General Manager Paul LaManes.

LaManes tells CBS News Detroit that within 12 hours, lights were back on for most residents after last week's intense storm.

"Would we want to do it quicker? Absolutely. But you have to do it safely," LaManes said.

The rapid response does not go unnoticed by the community.

"Usually when something happens, they take care of it as quickly as they possibly can," said lifelong resident Pat Tar.

"It's fairly quick. Within a few hours, they usually have power back," Mark Tomczyk said.

The city's electricity is run by Wyandotte Municipal Services, a utility company created in the late 1800's that provides public power to the community, unlike private utilities like DTE.

"One of the biggest points for a public utility is local ownership. Gives you the ability to control what happens within the boundaries of your city," said LaManes.

Lamanes says the city's goal with public power is to improve affordability and reliability for its customers, which is a benefit specifically involving last week's power outages.

"One of the advantages we have here in Wyandotte is that we have the same exact employees who work within the same five square miles surroundings of Wyandotte every single day, so they know the city like the back of their hand. They're able to respond to the outages quickly and efficiently," LaManes said. "We also have a very aggressive tree trimming program. We have tree trimmers here daily throughout the year whose responsibility it is to trim the trees away from the electric lines."

When asked whether other communities could follow suit and operate under public power, LaManes told CBS News Detroit that it would not be easy.  

"To do it today would be extremely difficult from a variety of aspects...cost, talent," said LaManes.

Bottom line, LaManes says, residents are at the center of the community, and city crews are committed to showing up when Mother Nature takes its toll.