As of Monday, March 16, 116,000 northern lower Michigan residents and businesses are without power following an ice storm.
Heavy ice accumulation downed trees and power lines and blizzard conditions dumped up to 3 feet of snow in some areas.
Roscommon County declared a local state of emergency, with 23,000 of it's residents without power. Alcona County is also almost entirely in the dark with more than 12,000 outages. Other areas like Alpena County only have partial outages.
Ken Dragiewicz, the president and COO of Alpena Power Company says outages started around 9 p.m. on Sunday, March 15.
“We have approximately 14,000 customers without power,” Dragiewicz said. “And that number has been continuing to grow.”
Ice is still accumulating on trees and powerlines, according to Dragiewicz.
Nic Modrzynski, the emergency manager for Alpena County, says residents should stay at home if it’s safe and report downed power lines.
“If there's a down wire and it's not arcing or sparking or on fire, you don't have to call 911, you can call the power company,” Modrzynski said.
For those who can’t stay at home, he says the Alpena County Merchant's Building is acting as a warming shelter.
Roscommon County residents can seek shelter at Richfield Township Hall, Lake Township Fire Department, Fred's of Roscommon, Little Bucks & Bobcats Daycare and Gerrish and Denton Township county buildings.
Officials in Alcona County are working to open warming shelters.
Matt Johnson, a spokesperson for Consumers Energy, says power is estimated to be restored later this week.
“We're certainly hoping by Wednesday that we'd be able to get most of those hardest hit areas back up,” Johnson said. “But this is a significantly challenging and catastrophic storm like we haven't seen in a long time.”
Johnson says impassable roads may delay crew’s ability to restore power.
"We empathize with those who do not have power right now. We understand the inconvenience that causes," Johnson said. "We appreciate everybody's patience as we also manage the historic conditions up there with the weather that we're seeing."
