I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t have a power outage during this last weather event.

I’m not telling you this to brag, but because I’m always without electricity for several days at a time. I live in an area with a lot of big, old trees that tend to fall over when the wind picks up.

This weather event has straight line winds – the same thing happened earlier in the summer. I tried to convince Kim and Ashlee it was a tornado, but hey, they’re the weather experts. Ha.

In fact, storms earlier this summer caused a total of about $15,000 in damage.

I was sad when my patio furniture and grill were destroyed. My daughter mourned the loss of her play equipment. Everything is back to normal now, but it was a trying week or so navigating the chaos without power.

I contacted my insurance adjuster immediately. I took photos of all the damage. I logged all my interactions with DTE, the city, and the insurance teams. I even took photos of all the food, wine, and beer that had to be sold. DTE gave us a credit of about $30 (which basically covered my daughter’s popsicles), but it all adds up.

I worked tirelessly to update my status through the DTE app and alert them that we were still without power.

Conclusion: Without electricity, you literally feel powerless. And having to deal with storm damage at the same time can be a huge burden.

My advice: try to be patient, keep good records, and remember that you can also contact me at 313-634-WDIV if you need help.

We will get through this together.