Cold takes its toll on night 3 of Detroit area power outage

(WJBK) - The cold. The dark. The waiting - it's enough to take your breath away - and for Ms. Ford on Detroit's west side that's literally the case.

"I need to take my breathing treatment," she said. "I don't feel well at all and it's freezing in here."

She did not want her face shown on camera and said she normally takes her breathing treatments a few times a day with a plugged in nebulizer, but can't because her power went out Friday afternoon.

FOX 2: "How long can you go without having any power?"

"In all sincerity two hours ago," she said. "I need it now."

DTE Energy has its crews and out of state linemen working around the clock to turn the lights back on. Many metro Detroiters reported they lost power after the severe wind gusts Wednesday.

Most of the metro Detroit area is forecast for a low of 13 degrees with wind chills near the freezing mark and wind gusts around 20 miles per hour.

DTE says at times during restoration they have to take a particular circuit down in order to make repairs and restore all customers on that circuit. It has restored power to more than 550,000 customers but roughly 250,000 were still without as of 9 p.m. Friday.

Including Damaris Velaquez who says she is sick with pneumonia.

It's almost as cold inside her house as it is outside so she's staying at the 24-hour warming center at the Patton Recreation Center in southwest Detroit. It is one of several warming locations in and around the city.

"They have been coming in and out, we expect more tonight than last night once the word gets out that they are open," said Ramone Jones, with The Red Cross. "We have cots available, we have personal hygiene kits and we have food coming in and people have been donating food and water too."

As for Ms. Ford, FOX 2 put her in contact with contractor Marco Nelson from Nelson Door. He set up a generator for her free of charge.  It won't power her entire house but it is helping her breathe again.

About 248,000 remain without power, according to DTE Energy as of 9:30 p.m. Friday.

DTE projects that about 90 percent of customers will be restored by Sunday evening.  As of 9:30 p.m. Friday, DTE Energy crews have restored power to more than 550,000 of the 800,000 customers impacted by the wind storm that blew through our service territory Wednesday, it said in a statement.

For a complete list of warming centers see below.

Warming Centers for SE Michigan by David Komer on Scribd