Alpena businesses and power crews took advantage of the nice weather Tuesday to help residents in need after the severe ice storm this past weekend left many without power.
Another storm system is on the way though and many people are preparing themselves for another round of devastation at home.
Reporter Steve Schulwitz from The Alpena News told WCMU, many are still sheltering in place and can't get out.
"There's a lot of people out there that are still suffering, so if you have something that you can offer to make their life a little bit easier, I would encourage people to do that," Schulwitz said.
He said many parts of northeast Michigan are blocked in still with no power.
And although businesses and city infrastructure is up and running, many living in city limits are busy cleaning up their basements after parts of the city's public water works lost power.
"Luckily I haven't heard of any incidents of local pipes bursting but many people's basements are flooded because the city sump pumps were running on generators and couldn't keep up, so sewage and stuff were backing up in people's basements and it's, yeah, it's a mess with no heat," Schulwitz said.
Power is slowly being restored to the county but Schulwitz said full restoration is open-ended at the moment.
"It really depends on the location and who the power provider is."
He said Alpena Power went from having zero reconnections to a large portion of the city's Alpena Township getting power. Then they were going more out into the rural areas.
However, companies like Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op were telling their customers to prepare for five days or more of being in the dark.
"In the last press release that I received, they had told their customers to prepare to find basically another place to stay," Schulwitz said.
Which, with the upcoming forecast, has everybody on edge.
It may take neighbors stepping up to help others through this and with another round of storms coming through it may take the county right back to square one.
"It's... people helping people," Schulwitz said, " so if you have something that you can offer to make their life a little bit easier, I would encourage people to do that."
