High winds Sunday morning knocked over trees and power lines causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of households across the state. As of Tuedsay morning 45,000 households remain without power in the Detroit metro area according to power company officials.

“We will have 90 percent of our customers restored by Tuesday night,” said Scott Simons, spokesman for DTE Energy. Continuing high winds have delayed repair operations in some places.

Most people in Michigan rely on natural gas furnaces for heat and most furnaces require electricity to operate. Despite the winter conditions it appears that no additional warming stations or shelters have been set up to help those without power in the Detroit metro area.

Simons said that DTE, which has received hundreds of thousands of reports of outages over the past few days, is unaware of any warming stations set up in the city of Detroit.

In power outage situations the city of Detroit or the Wayne County government is normally in communication with us about the need for shelters, Simons said, adding “We have not heard from them.”

Heather Hall, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Southeast Michigan says that the group has opened no shelters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties because the county emergency management offices have not requested help. She said she is surprised that no one has called.

Hall, who is without power at her home, said that when she called to report the problem DTE recommended that she turn on her back up generator and expressed surprise when told she did not have one.

A spokeswoman for the state police said that emergency management operations are coordinated at the county level.

Phone numbers listed on the state police website for emergency management offices is Wayne and Macomb counties did not work.

“We don’t have any reports of any needs out there at this time,“ said Gail Novak, chief of Oakland County Response and Emergency Preparedness.

According to DTE, 28,000 households in Oakland County are without power.

“I think the power outages are sort of sporadic,“ Novak said, “I know its going to get warmer today… I haven’t gotten calls from Edison [DTE].”

“If we have a need for shelters communities will set them up,” she said, adding that she is unaware of whether any communities have taken this step.

“In the meantime,” she said, “if you want to stay warm you can go to the malls.”

Derine McCrery, spokeswoman for the Children’s Center, a social service agency in Detroit, said that she believes many Detroiters are crowding into the homes of relatives who have heat.