Many still without power on the hottest day of the year

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) - Many customers including families and businesses remain without power Friday morning after losing it during the heat wave.

At one point 16,000 customers lost power on Thursday. That number has since been reduced to 1,700.

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DTE worked to restore people quickly, but those without power had to make do for a few hours and find ways to keep cool.

Near 13 Mile Road and Drake in Farmington Hills entire neighborhoods lost power for a couple of hours.  Those who had generators were lucky.

“I was glad I had it,” said Ron Marvin.  He said he had enough room to let the neighbors over to store food in his fridge if they needed it or if they wanted to come into their air conditioning.

Some people felt their best option had to be keeping their home closed up so the cool air inside did not escape outside.

“It’s a lot cooler in here,” said Cathy Staran. “Once the air is contained it heats up and then it’s really going to be uncomfortable.”

We found one neighbor who took the route if sitting in his car with the air conditioning running.

“Just in the car with the air on and listening to the Tigers game,” said Roger Bessinger.

Some just surrendered to the heat with a good bowl of ice cream on the front porch or an old fashioned bike ride around the block, like a few teenagers.  “It’s a bit weird, but it’s fun,” said 14-year-old Brendan Bartlett.

The most popular option seemed to be people just leaving their homes and crossing their fingers that the power would be back on when they got home.

“It’s dinner time so we’re just going out,” said Debbie Kendler.  “We’re hoping it comes back on later,” she said.

The neighborhood had power restored by 9 pm. 

6,000 customers including a lot of businesses in Ann Arbor by State Street and Eisenhower lost power shortly after 4 p.m. including Briarwood Mall.  Most had power restored by 6 p.m.  A fire at a transformer at a substation on State Street caused that outage.