DETROIT — A massive cable failure triggered a huge power outage in
downtown Detroit Tuesday, knocking out electricity to most public
buildings, trapping many people in elevators and cutting power to police
departments, fire stations, schools, jails and traffic lights.
The
"major cable failure" shut down the grid at about 10:30 a.m., and all
of the roughly 100 buildings on it were affected, according to a
statement from the City of Detroit.
"We have isolated the issue and are working to restore power as soon as possible," according to the statement.
Traffic
lights began coming back on at many intersections around 11:45 a.m. and
in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, where many people were evacuated
through stairwells, WJBK-TV reported.
Other affected buildings included the Detroit Institute of Arts and Wayne State, the Detroit Free Press reports.
The automated 3-mile long Detroit People Mover, which encircles downtown Detroit, was also shut down. Schools let out classes at mid-day.
Some
police officers speaking to their dispatcher on police scanners said
they were concerned about running out of gasoline because gas pumps were
down.
A number of fire stations were on generator power, and all are able
to take calls by landline or radio, according to Detroit Fire dispatch
radio traffic.
The Detroit Medical Center's Detroit Receiving
Hospital began has begun rerouting highest-level trauma patients to
Henry Ford and St. John's main hospitals, although emergency power
system have kept patients "safe and well cared for," according to a
statement. Other DMC hospitals – Harper and Hutzel, for example – were
not affected by the outage.
The ongoing murder trial of Bob
Bashara at the Hall of Justice was abruptly paused after the lights
flickered and went out. People are evacuating the courthouse by the
stairwell. Bashara, 56, is accused of directing his former handyman,
Joseph Gentz, to kill his wife, Jane Bashara.
The Detroit
Historical Society lost power while a school group was in the Streets of
Old Detroit exhibit, according to organization spokesman Bob Sadler.
"There
wasn't any panic" he said. "The staff acted fast. They had flashlights.
They moved them up to lobby and they boarded their buses."
Meanwhile, many non-public buildings are unaffected.
Reports of
the outages began flooding fire department radio traffic shortly after
10:30 a.m., with dispatchers checking to make sure the stations were
able to open their garage doors.
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