Some Still In Dark As Temps Near Triple Digits

FERNDALE (WWJ) - There are 19,000 DTE Energy customers without electricity Thursday morning, as temps are set to hit the triple digits. Redford and Ferndale are two of the areas with larger pockets of outages.

Mason Campbell is one of those coping without electricity.

"The apartment's very hot, the air is thick and humid," Campbell said. "You know, we live in small apartments and maybe, if you went on the porch, you'd probably be able to sleep, maybe ... but it's kind of difficult," he said.

DTE spokesman Len Singer tells WWJ the heatwave has caused a few problems. "This has been a really extended period of extreme weather for us. We're not accustomed to seeing this kind of weather multiple days in a row. In fact, it's probably been the 1990s since we've seen this sort of a stretch of weather," says Singer.

As for communities like Ferndale, Singer says it can be frustrating to look across the street and see your neighbor's lights on. He explains why only some parts of a neighborhood might lose service. "It can be coming out of the same substation, but they can be different circuits that are effected and depending on the equipment that's been damaged during the course of this heatwave, it can have an effect - one side of the street can be with power and the other side of the street can be without," he says.

Singer says the power grid has been holding up pretty well overall, although there are rare occasions where they intentionally cut power to a neighborhood. "In some very isolated situations, we've looked at the local grid and we've had some situations where we've done short, planned outages where we'll disrupt service for some pocket of customers for a short period of time in order to maintain the integrity of the system overall and prevent any greater damage," says Singer.

DTE says they're not expecting any widespread problems and crews will continue to work until power is restored to everyone.

Temperatures are expected to hit near the 100 degree mark Thursday, but when factoring in the sky-high heat and humidity levels the temperature may feel like close to 110 degrees.

An Excessive Heat Warning is in effect in Southeast Michigan until 10 p.m. Thursday. For the latest forecast, stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for traffic and weather, every 10 minutes on the 8s. -Visit our weather page-