It’s been six months since a disastrous ice storm swept through northern Michigan, but 82-year-old Karen Morgan, of Indian River, said she has a broken window pane she’s yet to fix and a tree she’s worried might fall on her carport.
“It costs so much money to have a tree service come. It’s thousands and thousands of dollars,” Morgan said.
Thousands and thousands she doesn’t have.
“It's frustrating,” she said.
The storm toppled millions of trees, knocked out power to tens of thousands of customers, interrupted cell service, and made road travel difficult. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for the storm days after it hit.
While the ice melted long ago, many residents like Morgan are still dealing with effects from the storm, from piles of brush to home repairs. Social service agencies are seeing higher-than-normal requests for help, while utility companies may raise rates to recoup the millions they spent repairing damaged lines.
A Habitat for Humanity leader said he’s still getting calls and stop-ins from people trying to make repairs.
“There’s a great deal of desperation in their voices when they come in here,” Ted Fines said. “They’re scared.”
Limited funds
Besides money from insurance, direct financial help for residents is limited. There are some federal loans available to individuals and other federal money for farmers and private forest owners, but that’s about it.
President Donald Trump approved $50 million. That money is designated for local governments and nonprofits. Whitmer appealed, seeking funds for utilities and individuals, but that hasn’t yet been approved.
The state House approved a bill that would give $100 million to individuals, businesses and communities, but the state Senate hasn’t acted on it.
“I find it very frustrating that the Senate has done little more than pay lip-service to our requests,” bill sponsor state Rep. Parker Fairbairn, R-Harbor Springs, said in a written statement to Bridge.
Habitat for Humanity Northeast Michigan, where Fines is the executive director, has been trying to help people pay for home repairs — mostly roofs. They use grants or let people pay in installments.
Folks are still coming in, seeking help with projects related to the storm, usually to fill gaps in what their insurance doesn’t cover.
“They can ill afford to be down for any length of time, and then the damages to their houses was extraordinary,” Fines said.
Maj. Prezza Morrison, corps officer for the Salvation Army in Alpena, said that requests for utility assistance, food, personal care items and undergarments went up as much as three times the normal amount after the storm.
“When you are on a fixed income, one small disaster can cause financial problems for months,” she said. “Many people had to use the funds they would usually use for monthly expenses for issues pertaining to the storm.”
Broken trees and branches
Michael and Jacqueline Schultz live on 15 acres in Cheboygan County’s Mullett Township. The married couple, both in their 70s, spent weeks picking up debris.
On breezy days, they avoid their woods, where branches remain up in the trees, waiting to fall.
“It’ll never all get cleaned out,” Jacqueline Schultz said.
They know they should clear out the brush so it’s not a fire hazard, but“who's going to help us do it?” Michael Schultz said.
Jon Deming, the chief of Otsego County Emergency Medical Services, said he knows some residents across the impacted area would like help clearing their yards. But, he said, private property is an individual’s responsibility.
“We don't mow your yard. We don't blow your driveway when it snows. And we can't clean up your yard from trees,” Deming said.
The funding just isn’t there.
Linda Klenczar’s family called their insurance company to figure out what to do about the damaged trees on their Burt Lake property. They were told their insurance doesn’t help when it’s just trees, but they were provided with a long list of contractors.
“And I think my brother-in-law called 22 different companies,” she said. “Only two of them responded to come out and actually give a quote.”
The person they hired has only come by once and has yet to finish the job.
“We doubt the contractor will get the place cleared and safe before snowfall. We still hope,” Klenczar said.
Joe Hauger, a co-owner of All Aspects Forestry in Boyne City — not the company the Klenczars hired — said they are backed up at least six to eight months. That means it can be a little touchy when customers call.
“When you say, ‘There's no way I can get to it till next year,’ the phone usually goes click,” he said.
Hauger said that, after the storm, he worked 18 hours every day for at least two months. While the money’s been good, he has mixed feelings about it.
“I'm benefiting from someone's misfortune. So that's not always the best feeling. But, as far as the bottom line, it's been fantastic,” he said.
Auto body shops were similarly slammed.
“Every garage, every body shop was just backed right up,” said Dave Cooksey, owner of Tri Rivers Collision in Indian River.
A lot of vehicles needed major body work after trees or large branches fell on them. Cooksey said they were backed up. He spent three months fixing up one Ram pickup that had $30,000 in damage.
But it’s back to normal now.
“I think everybody up here is finally getting caught up to where the storm work’s pretty much done,” he said. “There might be a few stragglers out there.”
Utilities
In the wake of the storm, northern Michigan energy cooperatives were left footing the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs. Many rural areas in the state get electricity and gas from smaller co-ops.
Great Lakes Energy, which represents more than 130,000 customers across much of the west side of the Lower Peninsula, said cleanup costs were estimated at $155 million. Typical storm recovery costs come in at about $4 million.
Alpena Power Co. serves more than 16,000 customers. In a statement, that company said ice storm costs came to around $2.5 million.
Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-Op represents the eastern part of the northern Lower Peninsula. Their CEO, Allan Berg, said the company had to borrow $150 million on emergency lines of credit for cleanup costs. The annual interest, he said, would come out to $8.5 million yearly.
Before the spring ice storm, “the largest storm we've ever seen in 80-plus years was $1.3 million,” he said.
Whitmer’s appeal requests funding intended to help utilities. Without help, the governor warned, co-ops would have to recoup the money they’ve spent from their members, causing price spikes.
The effort to get the funding has been bipartisan, with US Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, and state Sen. John DaMoose, R-Harbor Springs, providing support.
Presque Isle Electric and Gas Co-Op’s Berg said that, if his company gets no funding, it would have to make drastic choices.
“We would have to convert the $150 million into a 30-year mortgage and then pay back the interest annually along with that portion of the $150 million. That would be the worst-case scenario," he said.
PIE&G has already raised rates, with members being told to expect an extra monthly $20 per location. The co-op has about 35,000 members.
Alpena Power has applied for a waiver to avoid paying state-mandated outage waivers. Under state law, utilities must provide an outage credit of at least $40 under certain conditions. The case is still in progress.
‘It was a big disaster’
Though the storm happened six months ago, for many, it was a major event that is easily recalled in vivid detail. People recounted stories of exploding outdoor wood boilers, lining up to get water from a down-the-street well and tales of community members volunteering to drive to pick up gasoline for their neighbors.
Some feel like the storm wasn’t paid enough attention by the rest of Michigan.
“We experienced this disastrous ice storm, and half the people of the state of Michigan don't really understand the level of devastation that we had,” Linda Klenczar told Bridge. “Hurricanes and tornadoes and things that happen have had far more publicity than what our ice storm was. And I don't think anybody really understands how big it was.
“It was a big disaster.”
Bridge Michigan reporter Simon D. Schuster contributed to this story. This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Project, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
