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Trenton leaders press DTE after holiday power outages left hospital on backup and hundreds without power
Summary
Mayor Rezappa and council members criticized DTE Energy over multi-day outages following the July holiday, saying residents and at least one hospital faced prolonged generator reliance. A city official said DTE held emergency briefings and organized relief sites outside Trenton's ZIP code 48183.
Trenton Mayor Rezappa and city council members on Tuesday criticized DTE Energy for widespread power outages over the July holiday weekend that left households and, the council said, at least one hospital relying on backup generators.
"I don't know how many people lost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars," Mayor Rezappa said, describing food spoilage, lost medicine and wage impacts, and called the outages "completely unacceptable." He said the city has been in frequent contact with DTE and urged residents to submit complaints to increase pressure on the utility.
Councilman Peruggi, citing his health-care background, said it was "really, really unacceptable" for a hospital to be on auxiliary power for four days and called it a threat to patient care. Councilwoman Rodriguez said more than "200 and something households in Wayne County" lost power and criticized DTE for showing a rate-hike notice in outage communications as "very unacceptable."
Paul, a city official who briefed the council on DTE communications, said the utility has held emergency manager briefings and that the city receives summaries from DTE in advance of public filings. He also said DTE had established relief locations offering water, charging and limited food in Monroe, Dearborn Heights and Dearborn, but that DTE had not placed a relief site inside ZIP code 48183. "They know that we're not happy," Paul said of the city's communications with the utility.
Council members praised the work of DPW crews and mutual aid lineworkers from surrounding counties who assisted with restorations and cleanup, and asked staff to continue tracking impacts such as increased trash from spoiled food and to pursue better pre-event arrangements with the utility.
The council did not vote on new emergency actions at the meeting. City staff said they would continue communications with DTE and provide updates; Paul told the council DTE was planning further briefings and that the city would continue to press for improved response and pre-event coordination.
