Detroit News has this report today: Patience runs out for 45k without power.

A snippet:

DTE Energy spokespeople said the utility has all of their linemen — 650 — on the job and another 300 from other utilities.

They are hoping to get everyone reconnected over the weekend. In Wayne, 1,900 were without power; in Oakland, it was 27,000 and in Macomb, 5,000 outages remained Thursday night, DTE said.

Slowing the repairs is the scope of the damage and the availability of help from other utilities. Severe storms have hammered many parts of the Great Lakes.

Detroit Free Press has this story today: Restoring electricity may take longer.

Vince Dow, DTE Energy vice president of distribution operations, estimated the damage costs to be “in the tens of millions, easily,” during a public relations stop Thursday in a Bloomfield Township neighborhood where workers were trying to restore power.

I know disaster planning people recommend families be prepared to get by without help for 72 hours, but there are limits as to how long inexpensive home backups such as rechargeable batteries and re-usable ice blocks can prevent property damage and maintain normal routines without purchasing emergency supplies at a store that still has power; bailing out to another location; or getting electric service restored.

As I’ve been talking to other people who lost power this week, I noticed most of them started hitting “Plan B” stage at about 12 hours.

By the way, I hope you all didn’t rush out to fill up the freezer and refrigerators as soon as you got power again. There is the potential for more stormy weather today in southeast Michigan. (National Weather Service-Detroit.)