High energy demand causes outages in Detroit

Sections of downtown Detroit lost power Thursday afternoon after high demand for energy apparently caused the city's municipal power system to have a major failure, city officials said.

The outage forced the evacuation of the Coleman Young Municipal Center, the McNamara federal building, the county courthouse, Cobo Center and some schools. Traffic lights were out in certain areas but working in other parts of the downtown district.

Mayoral spokeswoman Karen Dumas told The Associated Press she was at her desk typing an email when the blackout occurred at 2:30 p.m. Dumas said the outage was due to extreme power demand in the last few days for air conditioning and city officials had been warned a brownout could occur.

She said it could take at least 24 hours to fix the issue.

James Hollins of Flint, a contract employee in information technology, said he couldn't get back in the building after leaving for lunch because of the power outage. He's worried about whether he lost valuable information on his computer at his work station.

As a contract employee, he said, there's "no work, no pay. That's a downer."

Even though temperatures were only in the upper 70s on Thursday, it had topped 90 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wayne State University spokeswoman Cheryl Yurkovich said she didn't know how many buildings were affected, but classes were canceled Thursday. She said they are expected to resume Friday.