Has the last productive person left Detroit and turned the lights out

Entire Detroit Public Lighting system is down

Detroit — A widespread power outage Tuesday has caused evacuations of buildings throughout the downtown, including Joe Louis Arena, Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, the Detroit Institute of Arts and some buildings at Wayne State University.

According to Detroit Press Office shortly before noon: "The city's public lighting grid suffered a major cable failure that has caused the entire grid to lose power at approximately 10:30 this morning. The outage is affecting all customers on the PLD grid. We have isolated the issue and are working to restore power as soon as possible."

"The city's Public Lighting Department is working closely with DTE during this process."

DTE Energy Co. spokesman Scott Simons said "it looks like the entire Detroit Public Lighting system is down. Affecting about 100 buildings, places like The Joe, Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, fire stations, schools. We were notified about 10:30 a.m. We're working with them to help resolve the situation. We'll help investigate the problem and make repairs. It's too early yet to determine what has caused the shutdown."

Detroit Public Lighting system couldn't be reached for immediate comment.

DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital was running on partial power while Children's Hospital of Michigan and DMC Sinai Grace confirmed they still had power. Wayne County Jail also was running on backup power and had no issues.

"DMC Detroit Receiving Hospital informed patients, families, clinical staff and non-clinical employees that it had experienced two power outages caused by outdated public lighting department equipment," spokeswoman Sarah Collica said. "DRH leadership emphasized the fact that all patients are safe and being well cared for. All emergency power systems are working effectively. Detroit Medical Center (DMC) facility leadership and DTE, from whom the DMC buys all of it's power, is working together with PLD to resolve the problem. Patients, families and employees can expect an update from DRH leadership at or around 3 p.m. All emergency trauma patients are being diverted to other trauma level 1 institutions, including Henry Ford and St. John's Main as a precaution."

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