Utility workers continue traversing remote areas of northern Michigan to restore power to the few thousand customers still in the dark following the catastrophic ice storm that swept through the region over two weeks ago.
As of Thursday morning, over 2,100 customers are still without electricity, according to poweroutage.us. At the peak of the storm, around 145,000 customers in the region were without power.
Allie Brawley is the director of communications for the Cloverland Electric Co-op, one of the companies working to help restore power in Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op’s coverage area. Nearly every PIE&G member lost power at the peak of the storm.
Damaged areas are so remote, Brawley said, that workers are digging new holes for utility poles by hand. Much of the equipment used to set new utility poles is too large to make it through remote overgrown areas.
"(It requires) a lot of labor and can be very difficult, especially if you're in rocky soil conditions,” Brawley said. “What they have to do is take a rope and a block and throw it around a strong tree limb and attach the other end of the pole to get (it upright)."
According to PIE&G President and CEO, Allan Berg, all service lines in their coverage area will likely be energized by today, but it’s unclear when all members will be back online.
"We're just in clean-up mode to get all of the lines energized that are running out of our sub stations and past everybody's homes,” Berg said.
Berg emphasized that crews are also actively working to restore internet service for their subscribers. Around 67% had access to the web, as of Wednesday afternoon.
"They are different crews, that's been a confusion,” Berg said. “Electric crews do electric, and our fiber crews do fiber. They're different people. So, we're not taking away from any of our electric restoral events by working on our fiber network."
18 days without power for some
Thousands of people went as many as 18 days without power in Montmorency County, one of the areas hit hardest by the storm.
At the height of the storm, so many trees had fallen in Pam Assemany’s neighborhood in Atlanta she couldn't get out for days.
She said her neighbors worked for hours to clear the road as trees fell around them due to the weight of the ice on limbs. Assemany and her husband kept warm by using a small generator to run appliances and chopped a lot of wood to keep their wood-burning stove running.
But on Tuesday morning, while talking with WCMU on the phone, utility trucks were actively fixing the connection to her home.
"They’re pulling in the driveway,” Assemany said, while describing the scene outside of her home. “My husband says six trucks are back there and they’re up on the pole putting a new pole in and a new transformer because that just broke and flipped."
Like Assemany and her husband, Alexandra Veeren and her boyfriend, who live on 20 acres in Atlanta, went 18 days without power. The couple went through three generators to keep warm and utilized a motel and school in Atlanta for showers while they commuted to work in Hillman.
Veeren said she feels tired, dirty and overwhelmed by this experience.
"You go outside, and there's just trees everywhere, it's going to take us years to clean up," Veeren said.
Just down the road from Atlanta in the community of Lewiston, thousands waited over two weeks to get their power back. According to PIE&G, the Lewiston area sustained “extensive destruction" to infrastructure.
Doug Baum, the Lewiston fire chief, expressed concerns about wildfires later this year.
"Because of all the branches that are down and trees that are down, that just puts more fuel on the ground for fire to consume,” he said. “Talking with other fire professionals, we're all concerned if we get big wildfires going, that could be really devastating to communities."
He also raised concern about long-term damage to vacation destinations, including snowmobile trails, hiking trails or RV spots.
“We're a vacation area, and if people can't enjoy this area, then they're going to go elsewhere, so that'll continue to be a financial burden on our businesses,” he said.
Still, Baum understood the massive undertaking needed to repair damage caused by the storm.
“I've been in this business for 41 years. I understand when you have devastation like this, it takes time,” he said. “It takes time to bring in the resources. It takes time to bring in the equipment, the poles, the transformers. You know, it takes time to get things cleared out of the way so you can get those poles set.”
People in Montmorency County and in northern Michigan can call 211 for assistance.
