--- description: A sprawling power outage in downtown Detroit prompted the closure and evacuation of buildings across the city on Tuesday. title: Detroit Power Outage Rolls Across City image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e7eee2222b73c01/69876bd4a988caa0fc6ab168/174015230.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [cities](/tag/cities/) ## cities Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Detroit Hit by Massive Power Outage  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 2, 2014 5:00 PM CUT  A view of Downtown Detroit on July 19, 2013. A view of Downtown Detroit on July 19, 2013.Bill Pugliano—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 2, 2014 5:00 PM CUT A sprawling power failure in downtown Detroit forced widespread closures and evacuations of buildings across the city on Tuesday. City officials confirmed that a power grid went down Tuesday morning around 10:30 am, plunging courts, fire stations and office towers into darkness, according to [reports](http://www.wxyz.com/ "undefined") by ABC News affiliate, WXYZ Detroit. A spokesperson for DTE Energy [told](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/02/detroit-power-outage/19777223/:%20%20http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2014/12/02/power-outage-blackout-downtown-detroit/19777075/ "undefined") _USA Today_ that roughly 100 buildings had been affected. The outage has forced some fire stations to switch on back-up generators, _USA Today_ [reports](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/02/detroit-power-outage/19777223/:%20%20http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2014/12/02/power-outage-blackout-downtown-detroit/19777075/ "undefined"), and prompted a growing number of schools to close for the day. Wayne State University [listed](http://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-public-schools-wayne-state-university-affected-by-widespread-outage "undefined") more than 40 buildings on campus affected by the outage. Pictures of darkened buildings were shared on Twitter throughout the morning. The exact cause of the outage is still unknown. > [](https://twitter.com/theScore/status/539822632750034945) > [](https://twitter.com/NewsOnTheMin/status/539816921701818368) > [](https://twitter.com/NewsOnTheMin/status/539821401176555520) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3613795/detroit-hit-by-massive-power-outage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3613795/detroit-hit-by-massive-power-outage/"},"headline":"Detroit Hit by Massive Power Outage","datePublished":"2014-12-02T17:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:30:24.257Z","description":"Fire stations, schools and office towers among the approximately 100 buildings without power","url":"https://time.com/3613795/detroit-hit-by-massive-power-outage/","keywords":["cities","Detroit"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e7eee2222b73c01/69876bd4a988caa0fc6ab168/174015230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e7eee2222b73c01/69876bd4a988caa0fc6ab168/174015230.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michigan Gov And Detroit Emergency City Manager Orr Discuss Bankruptcy Filing","caption":"Michigan Gov And Detroit Emergency City Manager Orr Discuss Bankruptcy Filing","creditText":"Bill Pugliano—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/cities/","name":"cities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3613795/detroit-hit-by-massive-power-outage/","name":"Detroit Hit by Massive Power Outage"}}]}] ```