Warren power outage tangles traffic, closes businesses

Blown transformer to blame for Tuesday morning outage

WARREN, Mich. – Hundreds of people living in a Warren neighborhood were without power this morning after a transformer blew, knocking down power lines into backyards.

"I was watching TV in my room and all of a sudden my TV went BOOM," said Judy Williamson, who lost power.

Judy saw the cause of the power outage from her backyard. Down lines were hanging over fences, more dangling in her neighbor's yard and on the other side of the street, the sidewalk was toasted after a small fire started.

"My day is going to stop now, until I get power back," Judy said. "Guess I'll try and read my book."

Around 8 a.m. Warren Police were called to the area of 9 Mile and Van Dyke where traffic lights were knocked out. Police had to direct traffic at the intersection during the morning commute. When DTE crews arrived, workers shut off power to the lines.

Around 9 a.m. DTE confirmed over 600 customers were without power and the outage couldn't have come at worse time for business owner, Andy Efrusy.

"I can't get in my store without power," said Andy. "These doors require power to open, I don't know what I am going to do."

Andy is the manager of SavMor Pharmacy and with security gates over the door, a simple key won't get him in. All Andy could do was wait.

"I am worried about loss of business, one day even a few hours, makes a huge difference," Andy said.

DTE told Local 4 power should be restored by Tuesday afternoon.