After more than a week spent restoring electrical services to hundreds of thousands of southeast Michigan, DTE Energy utility crews are back at.

While the problems last week were caused by a massive ice storm, requiring complicated clean up efforts, now the problems arrive during a massive snow storm, which led to expectations that some areas getting eight to ten inches of heavy wet snow.

A DTE official adds excavating and installing underground power lines in existing communities would take an environmental toll.

Trevor Lauer is DTE’s president. He said it costs utilities about the same to maintain underground lines as it does to maintain suspended lines.

The power problems caused by the Wednesday, Feb. 22, ice storm saw widespread outages spread throughout the southern portion of the coverage area for both DTE Energy and Consumers Energy

DTE Energy warned the community that this was possible, and they ask people to keep safety as the highest priority.

However, both utilities are exploring plans for burying more electric lines in the future. For example, expanding underground lines is part of Consumers Energy’s five-year $5 billion infrastructure plan.

The weather looks great for that, but please be careful. With wet, heavy snow expected on Friday across most of Michigan, electric wires may come down – and then be covered by additional snowfall.