About 20-percent of township residents lost power earlier this week when Sunday storms ripped through the region.
Some remained without power at press time, but DTE Energy officials were confident that the situation would be resolved by Friday at the latest.
Officials from the village dispatch center, which handles calls for the entire township, said they were fortunate to get outages reported to DTE (via the web) before the DTE system went down.
Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh said dispatchers went some six hours overnight Sunday before finally getting through on the phone with DTE.
‘That’s just not acceptable,? he said. ‘I’m sure there’s going to be considerable pressure on DTE to get a backup system in place.?
Narsh said he spoke with DTE representatives on Monday and believes power will be restored to the entire township earlier than their Friday goal.
He said no injuries were reported at the dispatch center and added Orion Township was fortunate not to get hit as badly as some surrounding areas. However, plenty of damage was reported.
Most of the power outages centered on the west end of the township, west of Joslyn Road. Power was also out along the Indianwood corridor, and the outages included Firestations #3 and #4, along Baldwin Road.
The township offices, as well as four Lake Orion schools (Oakview and Waldon Middle Schools and Paint Creek and Webber Elementary Schools), were closed on Monday, with Oakview and Paint Creek also closed Tuesday.
Paint Creek is the only school in the district that will not exceed minimum hour requirements from the state of Michigan, but the district has been granted a waiver, meaning no extra days will be added.