Power slowly returns to Detroit after sweeping outage

Power was slowly being restored Tuesday after an outage caused by cable failures hit a large swath of Detroit, causing nearly 100 city buildings, including public schools and firehouses, to lose their electrical service.

The power grid that went down only affects city buildings in Detroit, officials with DTE Energy said.

“Today is another reminder of how much we have to do to rebuild this city,” said Mayor Michael Duggan. Detroit filed for bankruptcy last year, and many of its public services have been hampered as a result.

Duggan said old electrical infrastructures could partially be to blame for the outage, though DTE Energy was still investigating the incident.

Photos of people standing outside buildings in the downtown area began to flood social media sites around 11 a.m. local time and DTE Energy spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said the company sent several crews to investigate.

A statement released by the Wayne County prosecutors office around 12:25 p.m. said power had been restored to the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice but that employees were instructed to take the rest of the day off.

“We hope to get this situation resolved soon,” Bodipo-Memba said.

About 14 firehouses across the city were affected, said Lt. Theresa Halsell of the Detroit Fire Department, and Detroit Public Schools officials announced they were cutting classes to a half-day. Backup generators were able to get the majority of the firehouses back up and running, Halsell said.

The Detroit Institute of Arts evacuated hundreds of visitors and said it would close for the day.

The Detroit People Mover, a public transportation system in the city, reported delays, and buildings including the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center and Wayne County Register of Deeds experienced outages, officials said.

Follow @kurtisalee and email kurtis.lee@latimes.com