DTE Energy text alert claiming restoration confuses Madison Heights' residents

As DTE works to restore power to the remainder of metro Detroit, residents in a Madison Heights neighborhood are voicing frustration over a false text alert they say they received.

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The alert claimed power to their street had been restored.

Doug Evans said, "Well, it just upsets everything you’re gonna do. For example, I have to come up with a plan of how I’m gonna sleep at night.”

Sleep isn’t a simple task for Evans. 7 News Detroit spoke with him over FaceTime because he’s at his cabin Up North.

Evans said he headed there because the power has been out at his home in Madison Heights. He said a lack of electricity is a threat to his life since he depends on a BiPAP machine to breathe while asleep because of sleep apnea.

“I just do my best not to fall asleep. So, I don’t sleep at all until the power comes back," he explained.

Evans said he’s among the residents in the area who received the text message from DTE, on Thursday. It states repairs had been completed on his street and that power restoration verification was in progress.

Evans described, “A notice from DTE that says, ‘Hey Doug, your power’s been restored.’ And I’m like ‘no’. Here I am in the dark still, and that’s it.”

7 News Detroit spoke to several people, including Shirlee Heibeck. She lives next door to Evans and says she got the same text.

“So, it is very annoying. The same thing happened to my son. He’s at Crooks Road. They told him it was fixed, and it wasn’t," she explained.

Heibeck said, "I think everybody’s kind of experiencing the same thing with the same question. Why are they saying it’s fixed when it’s not?”

Earlier in the day, 7 News Detroit reached out to DTE to ask about the text alert and gave them Evans' address so they could investigate.

While our news crew was there, a DTE crew stopped by his home as others worked in the area. Just minutes after our interview with Heibeck, residents' power had been restored.

Heibeck said, "After we were talking, I went back in and we were just kind of sitting there. All of a sudden a light came on like, ‘Oh no,’ it’s on. It’s one.’ I mean, truly. We had to turn the air on right away because it’s so hot in the house. We’re just happy that it’s resolved.”

In response to the text alert confusion, DTE sent 7 News Detroit the following statement:

On Tuesday night, 70 mph winds caused significant damage to power equipment in many areas, including Madison Heights. When our crews make repairs, there can be instances when a customer may receive a notice that their power has been restored, but a secondary issue arises that requires additional repairs. We apologize that these customers received an inaccurate message from us. We have crews addressing the issue now and expect that power will be restored soon.

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