A handful of Oxford businesses spent the last few days of 2008 in the dark thanks to a power outage caused by the high winds that ripped through southeast Michigan Sunday, Dec. 28.
A power pole in front of Harvest Time Farm Market cracked at its base and fell over as a result of wind gusts that reached more than 60 miles per hour. Live wires were left laying on the market’s roof, its dumpsters and on its trucks.
For the next four days, Harvest Time along with Wonder Cleaners & Laundry, Wash Me Car Wash, Downey-King Phipps Insurance and Jo’s Gas Station were out of power and out of business.
All this left some business owners out of patience.
‘I think DTE (Energy) handled it very poorly,? said Paul Forte, owner of Harvest Time. ‘Probably the biggest problem that I had with them was the lack of communication. The left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.?
Forte said he started calling DTE on Dec. 28, but didn’t get any results.
‘You never talk to anybody. You get the recording.?
Forte finally reached a DTE representative the next day, but things still didn’t improve.
‘We never ever got an honest response from anybody,? he said. ‘They kept telling us every morning, they’ll be here within an hour. I’d stay here all day long and they’d never come.?
To be fair, DTE Energy crews were working around the clock dealing with outages affecting an estimated 230,000 customers across southeast Michigan, about 65,000 of which were in Oakland County.
‘I understand a whole lot of people were out of power, but that’s their job as far as I’m concerned,? Forte said.
Rick Rice, who owns Wonder Cleaners & Laundry and the Wash Me Car Wash, said a DTE worker told him he’s ‘not very high on the totem pole? because he was doing minor repairs around the township for a few days and nobody had informed him of the situation.
‘He had no idea that pole was down,? Rice said.
‘Every supervisor that I talked to, and I’ve talked to at least a half-a-dozen of them, agreed it was a priority situation because of the pole, what it could do to the other two poles (it was connected to) and having live wires on the building,? he noted.
Besides the communication issue, Forte was also upset with DTE Energy because, in his opinion, if the power pole was sturdier, it wouldn’t have cracked.
‘The pole that snapped was rotted,? he said. ‘The pole was not maintained properly.?
Rice agreed the main problem was the pole’s deteriorated condition, not the high winds. ‘When they went to pull it out, it just fell apart in pieces,? he said. ‘That could have come down anytime.?
A DTE worker reportedly told Rice ‘that pole should have been replaced a long time ago.?
Rice said there are two other old utility poles, one of which is clearly leaning toward his laundry business, that need to be replaced.
‘I’m assuming their the same age as the other pole and that one was rotted pretty bad,? he said. ‘We’ve had the property for over 50 years there and those poles have never been replaced.?
DTE Energy’s inability to restore the electricity until around 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve resulted in large financial headaches for some of the affected businesses.
‘Had they come out here in a timely manner at least I could have salvaged some of the business, salvaged some of the product,? Forte said. ‘I’ve never been down that long.?
The outage cost Harvest Time an estimated $8,000 to $10,000 in spoiled or questionable inventory ranging from deli meats to produce.
‘Everything that we have in here is so perishable,? he said. ‘Anything that’s questionable to me goes. I can’t take a chance and give (customers) something that’s already five days old sitting in the store. I can’t pass my problems onto my customers. It doesn’t work that way.?
Fortunately, Forte’s lost inventory was covered by insurance, however, there’s no Plan B to cover all the lost revenue from being closed for four days.
‘It’s hard to estimate, but I’m guessing at least $15,000 (in lost revenue),? he said. ‘I’m coming off of a terrible year. I depend on that holiday business to get me through.?
Rice estimated his businesses, the laundry and carwash, lost several thousand dollars being closed.
His carwash also suffered about $3,000 in damage from frozen pipes while the coin laundry’s computers suffered close to $1,000 in damage from power surges.
Given how bad 2008 was, Forte’s hoping 2009 will be a much better year.
‘I think we all are,? he said. ‘I’m going to collect 2008 calendars and have a bonfire. We’re going to roast marshmallows.?