DETROIT (WWJ) -- Over 53,000 DTE customers have been without power for five days following Monday's severe storms and near hurricane-level winds.
Most of the remaining outages are in Detroit.
Ryan Marshall reported from the east side, where the Van Dyke Center for Senior Citizens is still without power. Residents of the high-rise at Van Dyke and Gratiot are angry and frustrated. They feel forgotten.
"Not only do we need our lights and stuff on, said Alissa Jenkins, a Van Dyke Center resident, "We need to have our [bills] prorated for the length of time that we've been without... since the 29th of August."
Jenkins found the continued outages especially insulting because she can see other homes and buildings nearby with power. "Now why is everybody around us getting lights, but we ain't getting none?" she said. "We're senior citizens! We need help!"
Confusing messages from DTE are adding to the outrage.
"It's terrible," Velma Wright told Marshall. "They keep telling you different things. One minute, it's on... 10 o'clock. The next minute it's supposed to have been on... 8 o'clock. It's been horrible."
"We don't believe a thing DTE says until these lights come on," another Resident said to Marshall after reading a message from DTE that claimed power would be restored by 3:30 p.m.
Some of the elderly residents are on oxygen or need electricity to power other medical devices. They have been forced to leave their homes to stay with family.
No power also means no air conditioning. Residents who have nowhere else to go have resorted to sitting outside in shady areas, hoping for a breeze -- not an ideal situation in 90-degree weather.
People have also been forced to take cold showers and throw out food, a real loss for residents on a fixed income.
WWJ's Charlie Langton was out on Detroit's west side Friday afternoon. He spoke to residents about how they're handling the continuing outages.
"It was kind of... at the last minute," said Devron White of Monday's outages, "so of course, it threw us off, it threw us back."
"We stay at a group home," White continued, "so it was hard to help the tenants."
"It's been kind of rough," said Ron Hyman. "You've got to either barbecue everything or throw away all your food. But I guess they're getting on it. They need to get on it real quick, man."
Another resident named Simo told Langton there's not much to be done until the power comes back on. "You smoke weed and see people asking questions," Simo said. "There's nothing! What can you do? You sit outside and be quiet and peaceful."
DTE has more than 2,000 line workers out working to restore power as quickly as possible -- including 1,000 brought in from other states. DTE reports that 80% of customers now have power and that 95% are expected to have power restored by Friday night.
Residents can check for updates on the DTE Outage Center website.
At this time, it is still possible these people will be without power for several days.
