Native 4 Knowledge at 6 — Feb. 27, 2023

Live from downtown Detroit Local 4 News at 6 Starts Now weather topping the news here tonight at six a washout across Metro Detroit after another round of nasty winter weather good to have you with us tonight I'm Devin skilliam I'm Kimberly Gill let's get right over to Adams.

Win right now Kim Kim well things are improving Kim ber got the freezing rain changing over to rain and it's actually starting to move out at this hour as well but we still have some pockets of Fairly heavy rainfall so Exact Track 40 radar doing a little street level mapping for you right along I-94 in downtown Detroit.

Getting a pretty decent downpour at this hour Rockwood Monroe LaSalle also over to Dundee getting some fairly heavy rain but as we move a little bit farther to the north we're watching a little freezing rain come down in Waterford over to Oxford and just touching the western part of Romeo we still have a winter weather advisory in effect for.

Those of you that are in Sinclair County that includes Port Huron until 8 o'clock tonight the rest of Metro Detroit that winter weather advisory was allowed to expire at four o'clock as this precip comes to an end keeping a close eye on temps they are at or near freezing just about everywhere you go but it's the wind we're concerned about because even.

Though the roads are just wet there's a lot of ice on the trees and we've had winds in excess of 30 to 35 miles per hour at into the power outages if you want to keep up to date on all the latest weather information the best way to do it is to download our forewarn weather app and type in your city you'll get interactive radar right in the palm.

Of your hand and accurate forecasts for your neighborhood Kim thank you and as we've been saying thousands of DTE customers remain without power for fifth day now at last check here at 6dte reporting more than 62 thousand customers still in the dark more than 600 000 customers have had their power restored but more than ten.

Thousand customers lost their power today due to the weather two steps forward one step back meantime the company is offering a 35 dollar credit to any customers who are without power for more than 96 hours one of the largest operations I've seen in my 20-year career with the company just very proud overall with what uh.

What the resources have been able to do what all of our employees and our contractors and partners been able to help get restored so far again we know this is a real challenge for anybody who's been out of power this long uh we're going to continue working until the last customer in fact tonight frustrated DTE customers.

Are demanding answers as they spend another night in the dark power outages also getting the attention of State lawmakers consumer investigator Hank Winchester working all day to get results for you he joins us now with what he's learned Hank Hey listen Kimberly and I get that frustration my power went out Wednesday.

It just thankfully popped on a few hours ago let me get you to the good news the good news saying a DTE saying that 95 of customers now back online this evening the bad news is you can probably see it some of this freezing rain and drizzle that's starting to come down that is certainly not going to help the crews that are out there right now working to.

Restore power all over the area been really hard because you know it's been like a struggle with the foods Parish Shannon and their baby they're cold tired and frustrated like many of you you can't stay here with the baby no yeah um I just go over someone else until the lights get back on the power has been on.

And off but mainly off in their East Side apartment since last Thursday all we can do is just wait and be patient like thousands of you my own power went out on Wednesday night we're at 48 right now I'm not gonna lie that's kind of a cool night the house was frigid the fridge now almost empty I pinched all the food last.

Night thankfully I got back online this afternoon and DTE says now 95 percent of customers affected by the storm now have power meantime Michigan lawmakers demanding action Michigan attorney general Dana nessel pushing for automatic financial credits and more change saying despite asking for record increases time and time again our.

Utilities have failed to adequately invest in their own infrastructure our current service quality standards are not sufficient and it is incumbent on the utilities to right this wrong the Attorney General though saying that she is encouraging DTE to make that move to make credits automatic is that something that you're agreeing with and working.

Towards we're doing that for this storm that's right but for the next storm uh that's a process we're going to continue to work with through uh through our regulatory gyms and State Rep Abraham ayash of Hamtramck pushing for legislation that would force utilities to pay you more for disruptions in service pay back the customers pay them.

Back for the groceries pay them back for the outages pay them back for the Lost medication and pay them back for the outage time that they've had to experience so in regards to this particular storm you don't have to go on and file the paperwork for that claim but as you heard DTE a little vague there uh moving.

Towards the future how they're going to handle those paybacks the AG insistent she feels that they should be automatic back out here in Hamtramck the good news you can see the power now on there were many homes in this area that struggled with outages during the last few days and today the power now on for many in this community but I know many of you.

Still struggling stay on DTE and stay in touch with us directly if we can help in any way we're live here tonight at Hamtramck Hank Winchester help me Hank back to you so absolutely frustrating though okay Hank we appreciate it and the power outages are hitting some of our most vulnerable people of course seniors living in assisted living.

Facilities tonight Victor Williams live hearing from families who hope that their seniors get priority repairs but they're still waiting days later Victor yes that is correct Devin they are still waiting and we spoke to the husband of one woman who is unfortunately suffering from terminal brain cancer and unfortunately at the facility where she.

Is there's no power this man is hoping that everything can be restored sooner rather than later she's in bad Health to begin with but this is not helping that's for sure 73 year old Cindy Condon has been living here at kernway assisted living facility in Bloomfield Hills with no power since about Wednesday night her husband Vince.

Has been advocating for DTE to do something ever since DTE supposedly is prioritizing nursing homes and assisted living facilities but my wife has been without power now for five days this is the fifth day they're people in their 90s living there everybody has a health problem who lives there Vince says he's called DTE on multiple occasions but.

Unfortunately has had no luck with seeing any results he worries the longer his wife is in the dark the harder it will be for her to live do you have to worry about their their state of mind their depression a lot of times people like this they depend on watching TV well there's no TV to watch so they have very little to do in the evening they.

Don't sleep right so I'm really concerned about her health with no definite answer on when power will be restored and more wintry weather on the way concerns are high but their extension cords in the facility so people can trip on them it's hard for the wheelchairs to maneuver around the wires there's no hot water lastly he.

Wants DTE to have a closer look at all the senior facilities operating without power I'd like DTE to have a list of all of the Care Facilities that are licensed in the state of Michigan and and use that as a priority and here's some good news after we made a phone call to DTE we're told that Crews were rerouted in order to try and.

Get power back onto this facility we're told that hopefully it's back to normal by the end of the day Victor Williams I'll use the word again so frustrating for so many people all right Victor debilitating even an unusual request from officials in one Metro Detroit Community they're asking residents to cover their toilets preaman joins us.

Live from Hazel Park with why they're being asked to do that Priya well Kim contractors are doing preventative work here on the sanitary sewer pipes and that could end up impacting your bathroom so City officials handed out notices like this to about 150 homes while we were working on the story today I was tweeting back.

And forth with mayor Pro tem of Hazel Park Luke Londo and he tweeted of course the whole asking residence to Saran wrap their toilets always gets an interesting reaction homeowners were certainly puzzled I'll just give the toilet seat down I guess it's not every day you get a notice asking you to close your toilet.

Lid or cover your toilet with garbage bags or plastic wrap have you ever heard a request to hey cover your toilet no I haven't the city of Hazel Park's Department of Public Works is launching a pilot program inspecting sanitary sewer pipes in the rear area of homes while this request is rare it's not unheard of there is a little notice on.

There about toilets because a toilet bowl does hold water and when our when these uh jet equipments or these sewer equipments are used they can create different levels of pressures contractors are looking for deficiencies in damaged pipes we went old school for a breakdown of the process so we have a main sewer line that is owned by the.

City and it runs underground and then each home has their home sewer line connecting to it so what we're doing is we're going to clean this sewer line out and then run a camera through it to look around and to check the inside of the pipe condition to know if it's doing.

Well or not but the challenge is the pressure that could be in here could lead yeah I get a little suction going on it might pull the air through the line and then you'll get that little toilet Splash DPW has divvied up the city into a dozen sections the first includes about 150 homes West from I-75 to the city border from Woodward Heights.

To 10 Mile they're just looking out for our best interest I guess of course we had to end right with the sound of a toilet flushing the city is focusing on this area first we're in the Northwest area of Hazel Park the process costs about 50 to 100 Grand it really depends on what contractors find officials are going to take a pause.

After this first week they're expecting it'll take about a week for the results to come in and then they will decide how to continue in the following 11 sections and of course we will keep you posted reporting live in Hazel Park I'm Priya mad local 4. I appreciate that sketch too that he did because it really shows you exactly you know what's going on and.

What could happen Maria we appreciate your report I thought so too really good yeah appreciate it the EPA has halted all shipments of toxic waste from the East Palestine train derailment it will put an end to the massive shipments of contaminated soil that have been treated in Michigan local officials raised alarm back on Friday saying they had no notice.

That waste was being brought here Wayne County Commissioner Ray Basham says that the waste that is put under groundwater to treat it could spread to other places in a move and and so it not only stays in Romney Taylor goes over to Westland it goes with you know five shipments were headed to Michigan.

They were ordered to turn around as it stands though there are more than a hundred thousand gallons of waste that need to be removed from the derailment site fire and police departments are looking into a suspected arson in Green Oak township fires started Friday morning about two police believe there's a connection between the homeowner and.

The potential arsonist police say the suspect who is currently at the Livingston County Jail is involved in another possible arson in Oakland County the investigation continues

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