ATLANTA, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Nearly 9 out of 10 customers are still without power as of Friday morning in Montmorency County, the center of the ice storm that swept through the northern lower peninsula six days ago.
Republican State Rep. Michele Hoitenga, who lives in Manton, said she was in the devastated area on Thursday and will be back up in that area today.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Hoitenga told Michigan News Source. “The destruction is equally bad across the district and I fear replacing the energy infrastructure/grid is going to be a very long haul. I don’t see how there can be complete restoration in under 30 to 60 days, but anything is possible.”
Montmorency County is the second-smallest county in terms of population in the lower peninsula with a population of about 9,500 people. There are 8,151 still without power of the 9,463 customers. Statewide, there were 76,525 customers without power as of 9:12 a.m. Friday, according to PowerOutage.us.
The Alpena Power Company, Consumers Energy, Great Lakes Energy and Presque Isle Electric & Gas Cooperative are the utility companies providing energy to the county.
Hoitenga posted on Facebook photos of the devastation including large trees still encased in ice resting against power lines.
“The ice storm caused widespread damage to transmission and distribution lines,” Hoitenga said in her Facebook post. “Without power to the transmission lines, there’s no power to the substations, which provide power to the service territory. As transmission lines are repaired, substations begin to receive power. Along with other technical power grid concerns that must be observed, the challenges remain to be the debris, impassable roads, and hundreds of downed poles. Each pole takes hours to replace.”
Hoitenga continued, “the damage is so severe that the power isn’t going very far past the substation due to widespread destruction. There are many crews and linemen fixing the infrastructure, with more continuing to arrive. In many cases, trees have destroyed poles, wires, and large sections of line, which all take time to rebuild and repair. Often, there are too many variables to give exact restoration times.”
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Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-Op reported Thursday that it had been able to restore energy to 11,390 customers as of 2 p.m.
“While the progress is encouraging, our teams remain focused on addressing any remaining outages as quickly as possible,” the utility stated in a press release.