A crippling ice storm in northern Michigan has knocked out power to at least 90,000 residential and business customers, forcing residents to bundle up at their homes without heat and closing many small businesses.
As of midday Sunday, half an inch to three-quarters of an inch of ice had accumulated in much of northeast Lower Michigan, and an inch and a half had accumulated in Elmira, near Gaylord.
“Usually a quarter-inch of ice is when we start to see a lot of impacts from ice storms, and an inch and a half of ice is very significant, bordering on kind of historic,” said Faith Fredrickson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gaylord.
Virtually all customers of the Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op and Alpena Power Co. were without power Sunday, some for more than 30 hours. Presque Isle reported about 32,000 electric members and reported about 32,000 outages.
Alpena Power serves about 16,750 electric customers covering 250 square miles in the northeastern Lower Peninsula of Michigan and said 99% of its customers were without power. The two utilities serve much of Michigan’s northeastern Lower Peninsula.
“This storm is unlike anything we have experienced,” Presque Ile co-op president and CEO Allan Berg wrote to customers Sunday. “While we diligently prepare for any weather event, this event is extreme.”
Some residents of the Gaylord and Alpena areas said they were without heat, while others were using generators to heat their homes. Residents said that most stores and restaurants were closed, and they are passing the time with loved ones huddling, playing board games or fashioning different ways to cook.
Dorothy Pintar of Alpena said when she looked out her window, she saw ice covering the tree branches.
“I feel like we’re encased in ice,” she said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center at 12 p.m. Sunday due to the ice storms. Personnel were monitoring the situation and “working with state and local officials as well as private sector partners to ensure any resource needs are met.” State coordinators were on the scene with local emergency management officials.
The ice storm hit before the region had to deal with tornado and thunderstorm warnings as storm swept the state, bringing winds as high as 70 mph and hail. The weather service said there were multiple reports of a tornado on the ground in Croton, Michigan, north of Grand Rapids, at about 6:05 p.m., according to radar.
More than 319,000 Michigan electricity customers were without power late Sunday, according to outage maps by 11 p.m., including outages from the ice storm and later from storms that hit Lower Michigan: DTE Energy reported 34,988; Consumers Energy, 190,508; Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op, 32,071; Alpena Power, 16,447; and Great Lakes Energy, which serves western northern Michigan from the tip of the state to Holland, reported 45.257 outages.
More on the outages
The outages were expected to last several days, Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op and Alpena Power Co. said. Alpena Power, for instance, lists only 32 full-time employees to service the area.
“Mother Nature has thrown a tremendous challenge at Michigan, and we’re determined to respond, to get the lights back on and to help so many communities recover,” said Norm Kapala, one of Consumers Energy’s officers in charge for Sunday’s storm response, said in a release.
Consumers urged people in the most severely affected areas not to travel unless necessary and to watch for downed wires and crews working along roads.
The Cloverland Electric Cooperative’s outage map showed over 5,753 outages late Sunday, with the majority in Mackinac County in the Upper Peninsula.
The Mackinac Bridge Authority also issued a high winds warning Sunday afternoon, with 24-34 mph winds on the Mighty Mac. It urged motorists to reduce their speed to a maximum of 20 miles per hour, turn on their flashers and stay in the right-hand lane since ice is forming on the grating of the bridge.
Consumers Energy said 600 crews would work to restore power and respond to potential upcoming thunderstorms.
The release said crews are “pre-staged across southern and mid-Michigan to respond and restore affected customers within 24 hours.” And the energy company has moved mobile storm units with supplies closer to crews in Cadillac and Gaylord.
The majority of northern Michigan should expect to be restored Tuesday or Wednesday depending on the ice storm’s impact with severe weather expected Sunday evening, too.
Due to the ice storm, MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena has been operating on generator power since 7 p.m. Saturday, according to a news release. The medical center has about six days of generator fuel on hand, and staff are monitoring the situation. The “Hospital Incident Command Center” is activated and staffed, according to the release.
“MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena is providing safe inpatient and emergency care to our patients,” said Hunter Nostrant, the hospital’s president. “The Emergency Department remains open for care and individuals with any health concerns that cannot be delayed should call 9-1-1 or go to the Emergency Department for immediate care.”
How residents are coping
“My husband and I, we’ve been in business doing snow removal for the past 25 years, and we’ve never seen anything like this ice storm,” said Marcy Beauchesne of Gaylord, who owns a lawn maintenance and snow removal company. “We’ve had ice storms before, but nothing to this magnitude.”
Denise Pallarito of Waters, a community near Gaylord in Otsego County, said her power went on and off a few times Saturday and has stayed off since around 4:30 p.m. Saturday. She is using her generator to run a pellet stove, which is keeping her home’s front room at 63 degrees.
She, her daughter and her granddaughter, born a week ago, are using “lots of blankets” and are making sure they are “all hunkered in one room.”
“As long as we keep her fed, we’re good,” she said. “That’s been interesting, just keeping everyone fed.”
Her daughter is nursing her baby, and Pallarito used her gas range to make grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch Sunday.
Danny Mitchell, an Alpena City Council member, said his neighborhood lost power at midnight Saturday.
“It’s inconvenient, more than anything else,” he said of the outage.
He said his dog isn’t used to the “total darkness” at night. “We had to find a flashlight to turn on just so the dog wouldn’t be anxious,” he said.
He lives with his wife and son. Another son, his daughter-in-law and grandchildren came over to visit Sunday. They passed the time playing games such as Apples to Apples and Scrabble. Without heat, the temperature in the home was about 52, he said.
“We’re dressed in layers; we’re OK,” he said.
