Update: Detroit Power Failure Result of 'Neglected' System

Updated at 10 p.m.:

Power has been restored to downtown Detroit after a cable failure left 100 Detroit Public Lighting Department customers in the dark for much of the day Tuesday.

Mayor Mike Duggan said the power failure is an example of the work that still needs to be done to rebuild Detroit and improve its aging infrastructure, The Detroit News reports.

“There’s been so much neglected for so long,” Duggan said at an afternoon news conference. “We’ve got a lot to do.”

Updated at 1 p.m.:

Power is slowly being restored to about 100 Detroit Public Lighting Department customers who lost power when a major cable failure caused the entire grid to lose power about 10:30 a.m.

The Detroit Press Office said in a statement that the issue has been isolated and crews are working to restore service. The outage caused evacuations of buildings throughout the downtown area.

Our earlier report:

A massive power outage has disrupted operations at buildings across downtown Detroit this morning.

Among the buildings affected are all fire stations, a number of schools, the People Mover, the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice courthouse, the City County Building, the Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the City Airport and others, the Detroit Free Press and WJBK-TV report.

The cause of the outage, which affected about 100 buildings, has not been determined. All are served by Detroit’s Public Lighting Department.

The Detroit News said the entire system was down. Children’s Hospital of Michigan and DMC Sinai Grace Hospital still had power, the newspaper said, but Detroit Receiving Hospital was running on partial power.

As buildings across downtown were in the dark, numerous people were trapped in elevators, according to reports. Firefighters who entered the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center entered the building about 11:20 a.m. said ”a lot” of people were trapped in elevator cars.

Detroit Public Schools are operating on a half-day schedule.

The Detroit Fire Department said some of its firehouses are operating on generator power and are receiving calls by landline or radio.

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Photo: Coleman A. Young Municipal Center via Creative Commons