The Big Blow of 2017 - 60 MPH+ Gusts Blast Detroit

**Zacha341** · March-09-17, 10:58 AM

That dim lighting [[browning) will kill computers, TV's and even effect the electronics on your water heaters. Unplug fridge and stove until the power is full... not browning. I had a water heater damaged from browning one time. Fortunately I have the DTE Home Protection Plus Plan. And all was repaired.

Originally Posted by preserve

I've got real limited power, furnace won't kick on, no TV, dim dim lights. Noticed folks across the street had their TV on, so it just must be my side of street.

**Zacha341** · March-09-17, 11:13 AM

Did not know it cut over north of Clairmont. The radius square of darkness [[noted as I drove around checking last night) was about Hazelwood to the Lodge southbound down to Seward and west to about 14th street.

I was relieved to see the Fisher building fully lit along with Henry Ford Hospital.

Originally Posted by Shai_Hulud

Our power is out on Atkinson St. Everything was fine going down Chicago but the south half of Longfellow was dark and I don't know how far south it extends...

**Zacha341** · March-09-17, 11:14 AM

Roofers too!

Originally Posted by ABetterDetroit

The tree guys are going to make bank off of this one.

**Zacha341** · March-09-17, 11:19 AM

I hear that! I have candles, including the emergency specialty candles, a battery, solar powered/ wind-up radio with AM station option. Still I had a cold coming on and left to stay with a friend. It was just too cold to tough it out this time.

Originally Posted by Meddle

Gotta get their MTV.

People have forgotten how to live without electricity. Candles, lanterns, fireplaces, camp stoves, etc.

**Danny** · March-09-17, 12:05 PM

God is in control folks.

**Honky Tonk** · March-09-17, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

I was relieved to see the Fisher building fully lit along with Henry Ford Hospital.

HFH has their own generators. I'm not sure about the Fisher Building. Though I've heard "The show must go on!", I'm not sure it's a critical life and death situation.

**Jimaz** · March-09-17, 05:04 PM

I knew from the radio that traffic was a nightmare due to dead traffic lights and roads closed for downed lines. So I deliberately chose a local pizzeria for lunch. Traffic was so dense I had to drive four miles out of my way anyway. And that's despite knowing all the local shortcuts!

**Don K** · March-10-17, 12:07 AM

NE of Lone Pine and Telegraph we lost power for around a half hour Wednesday morning. ATT telephone, TV, and internet have all stayed up. Our whole-house natural gas generator makes us pretty much indifferent to the state of the electric grid.

**clubboss** · March-10-17, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by Don K

NE of Lone Pine and Telegraph we lost power for around a half hour Wednesday morning. ATT telephone, TV, and internet have all stayed up. Our whole-house natural gas generator makes us pretty much indifferent to the state of the electric grid.

I've been looking at Generac's, have you lost power since installing the unit?

**thomprod** · March-10-17, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

That dim lighting [[browning) will kill computers, TV's and even effect the electronics on your water heaters. Unplug fridge and stove until the power is full... not browning. I had a water heater damaged from browning one time. Fortunately I have the DTE Home Protection Plus Plan. And all was repaired.

I had the same situation last year after a windstorm took a branch off a tree and it fell on my power line drop, shorting one side to ground. I knew enough to unplug the fridge, computers and electric stove but didn't realize this "browning" also burned out clocks, power strips and ceiling fan motors.

**Bigb23** · March-10-17, 08:14 PM

For the longest time, you could not find any power outage info on any DTE website, other than the occasional power breakfast wrap, and selected community input.

I was overjoyed when the DTE outage map would give me a little info about my umpteenth yearly outage.

Now it is so bad, their WHOLE online system map shuts down for days.

Is this to avoid some corporate em BARE ASSED ment ?

My heart goes out to the families of the crews, waiting for loved ones out there for us, and having been a lineman in an ice storm before, I could only imagine.

**Meddle** · March-10-17, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by Don K

Our whole-house natural gas generator makes us pretty much indifferent to the state of the electric grid.

If you have utility supplied NG, you won't run out of fuel, but you might run out of consciousness when you see your gas bill if it had to run very long.

If you use LP, gasoline or diesel for a generator, you need to have a fuel supply chain handy. They are not efficient at all.

**Cincinnati_Kid** · March-11-17, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by 313WX

It's the Trump Effect.

Please spare us the rhetoric....

**Zacha341** · March-11-17, 08:38 AM

Remind me not too not complain one nano-second about one of the 15 or so days we'll have of hot 'so called' sticky weather this short summer to come [[please hurry).

Well eh, unless the electric goes out like this again!

**jcole** · March-11-17, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by Bigb23

For the longest time, you could not find any power outage info on any DTE website, other than the occasional power breakfast wrap, and selected community input.

I was overjoyed when the DTE outage map would give me a little info about my umpteenth yearly outage.

Now it is so bad, their WHOLE online system map shuts down for days.

Is this to avoid some corporate em BARE ASSED ment ?

My heart goes out to the families of the crews, waiting for loved ones out there for us, and having been a lineman in an ice storm before, I could only imagine.

The fact that their whole site was down for a day would lead me to believe they didn't remove the outage map because of "embarrassment"; the outage map was the first thing available on mobile when they brought the site back on line.

**RO_Resident** · March-11-17, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by Bigb23

For the longest time, you could not find any power outage info on any DTE website, other than the occasional power breakfast wrap, and selected community input.

I was overjoyed when the DTE outage map would give me a little info about my umpteenth yearly outage.

Now it is so bad, their WHOLE online system map shuts down for days.

Is this to avoid some corporate em BARE ASSED ment ?

My heart goes out to the families of the crews, waiting for loved ones out there for us, and having been a lineman in an ice storm before, I could only imagine.

They have a static map that is updated regularly. Used it quite regularly over the past few days.
http://www.dteenergy.com/map/zipCodeOutageMap.pdf

**Bigb23** · March-11-17, 11:17 PM

The fact that their whole site was down for a day would lead me to believe they didn't remove the outage map because of "embarrassment"; the outage map was the first thing available on mobile when they brought the site back on line.

Another way to track your every move at the corporate level. When will they quit ?

**Gannon** · March-12-17, 03:39 AM

I spent about 45 minutes in dazzled awe at the sounds of the "forest" in the middle of Belle Isle Wednesday morning. As soon as I'd driven around the bend into the thick of it, I heard a crack and slow crash/crunch/crumble off to my right...far enough away to not be a threat, but close enough to tickle my adrenal glands a tad.

A few years back, our neighbor's hundred-foot-tall beast split in half and almost crushed me...that sound clearly triggers some lingering PTSD. That might've been September 11th, 2013.

Maybe a hundred yards further, another sharp crack to my right...where I saw a top branch snap off one of the tallest trees around. It did a drunken tumble to the ground, tugged and twisted by every other branch around. I pulled over to hear the trees banging into each other in the gusts...some echoing quite a hollow thunking clack, which reminded me of the bamboo forest just over two miles into the Na Pali trail on Kaua'i. Totally mesmerizing.

One huge grandfather was already leaning, and seemed to sadly sway with the gusts...I just knew he was ready to quit fighting...but then realized that if he went down, he'd block the road. So I pulled ahead far enough to watch in my rearview mirror. Nothing happened, although the wind tried to put him away.

Sat there peacefully for a moment until the most amazing roar of a crack...over my left shoulder, roughly in the middle of the woods between the two shortcut roads. A whole tree went down, and brought down a smaller one along the way. I thought I was going to see a domino line tumble.

All of this served to put me in such a heightened state...it was a full-on adrenal dump. If this is near what ol' Hunter S. used to get out of consuming human adrenals...I understand. What a rush.

I rode this buzz all the way home...sharing with my partner and a friend through texts filled with expletives and exclamations. It lasted until our power went away...about three hours later. Damnit, I had work to do...

We didn't get it back until late last night...this morning was our first 'normal' one since Tuesday. Both enjoying every moment of power, and heat...the house got down to 53 degrees, which is so uncomfortable it MUST be dangerous for a duration. Luckily, the gas-fired water heater has some capacitor-battery...because it never flinched.

We almost didn't notice the power had come back on...I'd tripped all the breakers, so the sensitive electronics and appliances wouldn't fry with the on-surge. If my honey hadn't gone upstairs for her knitting supplies and looked outside to find the neighbors all lit up...we would've gone a while with our no-power routine.

My LG tablet finally earned its keep...the extra cash at&t makes us spend on cellular for it allowed me to watch an episode of 24 that I'd missed...

I learned that I'm becoming an even more fierce creature of habit...these disturbances are more unsettling than they used to be. Hope everyone finds their "normal" again...

Cheers!

**Gannon** · March-12-17, 03:47 AM

The hum was dramatically reduced within the house during the outage, btw.

**Bong-Man** · March-12-17, 07:23 AM

Power outages used to be the time to light a candle and bring out the acoustic. Now all I hear is a constant drone of generators. Necessary I know, but annoying.

I like Winter, but I've always thought March was the cruelest month to live in Michigan.

**Zacha341** · March-12-17, 08:06 AM

I don't like Winter but find the up and downs and unpredictability of March particularly annoying. The winds really laid us out this year!

**Zacha341** · March-12-17, 08:14 AM

Thank you for sharing your story and details G. I too noticed some tall and mighty trees struggle to stay vertical, including some old Elm and Chestnut trees holding on for dear life as I drove about to and from work.

And my older model Ipad [[that I rarely use) finally came in handy ala phone plan data use when I was in between WIFI access.

And yes, many of us are trying to reclaim our 'normal'! What a wild week and weekend!

Originally Posted by Gannon

....My LG tablet finally earned its keep...the extra cash at&t makes us spend on cellular for it allowed me to watch an episode of 24 that I'd missed...

I learned that I'm becoming an even more fierce creature of habit...these disturbances are more unsettling than they used to be. Hope everyone finds their "normal" again...

Cheers!

**Zacha341** · March-12-17, 08:17 AM

It must be electrical in nature... will be interesting to see if it resumes full tilt!

Originally Posted by Gannon

The hum was dramatically reduced within the house during the outage, btw.

**Zacha341** · March-12-17, 08:18 AM

Yeah, I am thinking about deleting the app, seeing as how HELPFUL [[not) it was.

Originally Posted by Bigb23

Another way to track your every move at the corporate level. When will they quit ?

**Honky Tonk** · March-12-17, 12:36 PM

What kills me is in the last 6 months, I gotten several e-mails from DTE telling me how they've invested $3.5 bil in infrastructure, and how the grid is now 70% more reliable, [[for me), and now they're going to try to recoup some of their investment. [[I smell a rate hike coming) Yet, as soon as something out of the ordinary happens, there are extreme power outages everywhere. Business as usual I suppose.