Detroit Victim of a Massive Blackout

Even if Detroit is in the process of recovering from bankruptcy, the challenges remain. A massive power outage, which partially paralyzed the city on Tuesday, Dec. 2, has served as a stark wake-up call to those who thought that the worst was behind them. The splitting of a deteriorating underground cable was enough to plunge the extensive urban area into unprecedented chaos.

The midmorning power outage forced thousands of workers and service users to abandon the majority of the city’s public services. Schools had to shut their doors early because there was a lack of heating. At the courts, several trials had to be suspended. The disruption to traffic lights sparked jams, requiring the police to deploy dozens of officers to get things moving again. In some buildings, several dozen people found themselves trapped in elevators. The “Detroit People Mover,” an above-ground railway, which loops around the town center, could not operate. More than 1,000 detainees at the Wayne County prison remained locked up for the duration of the outage. Finally, the Detroit Institute of Arts was forced to close its doors, while an emergency generator was installed to assure the security of the area.

Bringing Infrastructure Up To Date

The failure of a primary cable occurred around 9:30 p.m., requiring the local energy provider DTE Energy to switch to a secondary cable, which also failed. As a result, 890 buildings served by DTE were without electricity for several hours. Eventually, the situation returned to normal in the afternoon.

DTE Energy was chosen as the energy provider when the city was placed under bankruptcy protection, immediately replacing the former Detroit Edison. The utility predicts that it will take between five and seven years to bring the neglected electrical infrastructure up to date. According to the mayor of Detroit, DTE is currently investing $200million to modernize the network to prevent future blackouts.

This incident occurred a few weeks after a federal judge approved a plan for the financial reorganization of the city on Nov. 7. The plan foresees the clearing of close to one-third of the debt — $7 million out of the $18 million accumulated over time. Consequently, the finances of the city are being closely monitored while the city’s administration undergoes a vast reorganization. Part of the available funds — $1.7 million — will be invested in desperately rundown services, such as fire and police protection, and electricity services . “Today is another reminder of how much work we still have to do to rebuild this city, and a bankruptcy order doesn’t solve the decades of neglect in our infrastructure,” stated Detroit Mayor Mike Dugan.