The power had gone out, and the peace went away along with it.

Without electricity, we had no working nightlights or CD players or white noise machines to soothe our girls as they drifted off to slumberland.

I cursed the timing. Ten more minutes, and they would have been sleeping soundly, without ever knowing we lost power.

I tried to comfort the girls while my husband hunted for flashlights.

A shrieking Sarah had to be lifted from her crib.

"Momma's here," I said to her older sister, Julia, crying in her bed one room over. Then, I began to sing so both girls could hear me.

That began a marathon of repeating the words to the most comforting hymn I could conjure in 10 seconds or less.

Julia sang, and Sarah did, too.

As the minutes stretched into an hour, I worried about what we'd do if the darkness lasted much longer.

With temperatures outside in the 20s, surely our home would grow cold quickly. We couldn't keep the kids overnight in a house without heat.

Even as I held a 28-pound bundle of warmth in her fleece footy pajamas, I started to notice a chill in the room.

I could hear my husband tromping around downstairs. A Police Department dispatcher told him it was an emergency outage, and that we should have electricity within the hour.

Soon after, both of our little angels finally nodded off. Then, as quickly as it disappeared, electricity was restored. I could hear the warm air from the furnace whooshing through the ducts as the lights flashed on.

But as I grew cozy again, I could not help thinking about other parents who bundle up their children every night, trying to protect them from the cold inside their own homes. The people who can't pay skyrocketing utility bills and have to put their kids to bed without the comforts of night lights, music and warm air flowing from the vents.

That's an unsettling reality for an increasing number of metro Detroiters in this bad economy. The thought of it makes me shiver.

If you or someone you know is in this situation, you can call DTE Energy at 800-477-4747 to get help.

"We can't emphasize enough that people should give us a call as soon as they realize they can't make a payment or get into financial difficulty," DTE Energy's spokesman Scott Simons told me.

Several options are available, from payments plans to the assistance of nonprofit organizations such as The Heat and Warmth Fund and the United Way to state aid for low-income people for heating bills.

If you're in a position to help, you can donate to THAW online at www.thawfund.org or by calling 800-866-8429 or mailing a check to The Heat And Warmth Fund, 607 Shelby St., Suite 400, Detroit 48226. The United Way may be reached at uwsem.org or by calling 313-226-9200. Checks also may be mailed to: United Way for Southeastern Michigan, 660 Woodward Ave., Suite 300, Detroit 48226.

Contact features editor KRISTEN JORDAN SHAMUS: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com

Labels: basic needs, InTheNews