According to very short, very uninformative stories in both dailies, it appears we have a power shortage in downtown and midtown. I first noticed it Saturday morning. Neither story mentions that traffic lights in many parts of downtown are also affected. Detroit Receiving was relying on generators, but got their power back on yesterday around 2pm. The DIA is apparently also affected and closed as a result according to an email I got from them this morning. The newspaper articles attribute the power loss on the failure of 3 tie cables due to the heat.

What bothers me is this. Isn't this the same kind of failure we had twice in one summer during the Archer administration? In those cases, the power failure was city-wide and affected all municipal facilities including police stations, street lights and traffic lights. So in 10 years or so, 3 administrations have managed to duck the issue? I know funds are tight, but the ultimate cost when it fails must be pretty high, too. I mean, is it good to have your main trauma center running on back-up power?