TAYLOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Thousands of DTE customers Downriver remain without power days after Friday's storms knocked out electricity across the region, and for local business owners, the outage is becoming a financial crisis.
Watch Carli Petrus's video report:
Mandi Kaminsky lost power Friday evening at her Trenton home. Approaching the 72-hour mark with no restoration in sight, she said her family is questioning why repairs are taking so long.
"Yeah, we're getting pretty close to that 72-hour mark," Kaminsky said. "It needs to be a priority to make sure that people aren't losing more than what Mother Nature has already done."
At JP's Trolley Stop in Taylor, owner Krissy McGuire said the restaurant has been closed for days — meaning no customers and no paychecks for her staff.
"Well, it absolutely destroys our business," McGuire said. "They lost work on Tuesday, they lost work on Friday, they lost Saturday, Sunday, here we are Monday."
In Gibraltar, the outage hit a new business owner at the worst possible moment. Terrence Bevins said he and his family were just days away from opening Street BBQ when the power went out Friday. Nearly $8,000 worth of food had to be thrown away.
"It's been a struggle the last 72 hours," Bevins said. "It took a long time to get here. It was like so close, and it feels like it was just pulled right out from my hands."
At a press conference Monday afternoon, DTE acknowledged the urgency of the situation.
RAW VIDEO: Brian Calka, senior vice president at DTE, speaks on restoration progress
"And please understand we will continue to work around the clock until the last customer is restored," Brian Calka, senior vice president at DTE, said.
But Downriver business owners said they want DTE's leaders to understand what these extended outages are costing their communities.
"What they're doing is not okay. Everybody knows around here, it's not a secret, come summertime to wintertime, your DTE bill is through the roof," Bevins said.
"I just want somebody to tell me, we're working on this, we're making a change, just show me a little bit of effort, something," McGuire said.
With no reliable timeline for restoration, business owners said they are hoping power returns before the damage becomes impossible to recover from.
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