Downtown Detroit Goes Dark After Major Power Failure
Much of downtown Detroit is without electricity following a "major cable failure" at one of the city's power grids. Roughly 100 buildings, including schools, museums, fire stations, court houses, and sports arenas, were still without power as of noon.
"We have isolated the issue and are working to restore power as soon as possible," the Public Lighting Department said in a statement, according to NBC News.
At one point, at least 87 of 97 Detroit city public schools were without power. Outages were also reported at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Joe Louis Arena, the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, several Wayne State University buildings, and Detroit Medical Center, which is operating on a backup power system and has transported emergency trauma patients to different hospitals as a precaution.
#BREAKING: 100 people stuck inside #Detroit city/county building needing DFD escorts down stairs, all people in elevators are out.
— Shawn Ley (@ShawnLeyLive) December 2, 2014
City Hall scene ... pic.twitter.com/1yjbYf5sVY
— ChristineFerretti_DN (@cferretti_dn) December 2, 2014
This is what evacuating 900 student visitors looks like! #DetroitPowerOutage pic.twitter.com/tCjhh7FV8c
— Detroit Inst of Arts (@DIADetroit) December 2, 2014
Detroit power outage hits class during infrastructure discussion - prof keeps teaching in the dark. @waynestate pic.twitter.com/6c4ZuqMd1Q
— k5haw (@k5haw) December 2, 2014
Huge power outages in Detroit right now, including fire stations, courthouses, Joe Louis Arena http://t.co/fzpxjrVCRR pic.twitter.com/i1bvGaGHtj
— Austin Hunt (@AustinHunt) December 2, 2014
Power out at Frank Murphy. Building evacuated @WWJ950 @CBSDetroit pic.twitter.com/Zv6Ibmh5Xs
— marie osborne (@marieosbornewjr) December 2, 2014