The Calm Before the Storm
We went skiing for the last time of the season at Nubs Nob on Thursday, March 27. It was a beautiful sunny day. By the time we came home that afternoon, the greenhouse temperature was 95 degrees! The orchids are in full bloom in the front window, the bulbs are beginning to pop up in the front garden, and it's beginning to feel like spring. And then…
Northern Michigan Ice Storm 2025
This ice storm is said to be the worst in at least 100 years. The power grid is completely destroyed. Ten counties were declared in a state of emergency by the initial storm, with an additional two counties following secondary storms. That's a huge portion of the state of Michigan.
Timeline of the Storm
The storm began on Friday evening, March 28. We were awakened several times throughout the night by a lightning storm. Power turned on and off several times, but remained on.
Saturday, March 29 came freezing rain. All day long. Several times throughout the day, the power went out, but always came back on. Meanwhile, the trees were getting weighed down with ice. By the evening, the internet went out. We pulled out a DVD to watch a movie, but couldn't find the remote. The power continued going on and off, so every time that happened, we had to put a new movie in. Then the power finally remained off.
Overnight into Sunday, March 30, we heard a large crash that shook the entire house. It sounded like a tree fell on the house. When we awakened, we saw that the utility pole closest to our house was snapped in two and power lines were laying across the street. After further investigation, we found out what the crash was that we heard overnight. Our service lines had ripped off the house as the utility pole snapped. There were tree limbs down everywhere and other utility poles were ready to snap. Throughout Sunday and Monday, it sounded like gunshots in the woods as tree limbs, and trees, came crashing down.
We Were Stuck at Home
The Michigan state police asked everyone to shelter in place so crews could begin to clear roads. We have three ways we can get to the main road from our house. Each way was completely blocked by down trees and power lines. Andy got his chainsaw out on Monday and began to clear the debris from our street.
And So It Continues…
By Tuesday, we had one way out from our house, but the trees were still weighed down with ice and continued to break. By the end of the day on Tuesday, four utility poles in a row were down on our street. And we heard it was like that all over northern Michigan.
More Weather
Wednesday, April 2, we had more snow with freezing rain, then rain again. The trees were still weighed down with ice from the first storm, and now more ice! Many areas that had power restored already, lost power again due to this round of weather. Overnight, we heard many sounds of ice falling from the roof and trees.
Relief for the Trees
Thursday, April 3 we awakened to trees that had no remaining ice, and they began to lift back into place, after 5 days of ice! Unfortunately, that warmup brought gusting winds up to 40 mph.
Day 5 (no power) - Thursday also brought the first signs we had seen on our road of anyone official. A guy came down the street driving a front loader, pushing any branches out of the road, and flattening all wires that were across the street so people can drive down all the streets. Our hill was the last thing they cleared that day, so finally all ways in/out were accessible.
Cleanup
On Thursday, Andy did a little cleanup around our yard with his chainsaw and went into town to help a friend that had a large limb land on a deck. We went into town late afternoon and checked out things at church. On our way, there was a tree down that Andy had to move to clear our way out. Power and internet were on at the church, so we got things ready for Sunday morning service. Andy did a little more saw work and cleanup at the church. We met up with friends at The Thirsty Sturgeon for dinner.
More Cleanup
On Friday, April 4, Andy left with the truck and dump trailer to meet up with a guy from church, to help with cleanup at another church member's home.
Signs of Spring
I began some cleanup in the greenhouse and planted some starter seeds to put in the kitchen window. The thermometer shows the temp in the kitchen window on the left, and the temp in the greenhouse on the right. Other than that, I was stuck at home to keep the fire going in order to heat the house. It was still cold in northern Michigan.
Be Prepared
This is definitely the lesson we learned through this.
We are blessed with an abundance of firewood that Andy had stored all summer long, an energy efficient fireplace that heats the house 75-82 degrees, a generator to keep the refrigerator and freezers cold enough (we'd run it three times throughout the day and turn it off overnight), and a 30 gallon fuel tank to keep the generator running for a week and counting so far! We have lots of prepared meals/soups in our freezer, along with meats, etc. to last us months.
The one thing we were lacking is a portable power station with solar panels. If we had one of those, we probably could have been working on house projects when we were stuck home. That would have given us enough power to run power tools. Other than that, we felt we were very prepared. We never had to sit in a two hour wait at the gas station or drive a long distance just to find fuel as others had done.
Restoration Begins
The county and municipal workers from across northern Michigan worked endless hours. Once this was declared a state emergency, state workers, as well as those from other states, and the National Guard, were coming to the rescue. A very close friend of ours had put in over 200 hours of work from Friday night through Thursday. People were providing workers with free meals, and restaurants were doing this as well. Neighbors were also helping neighbors in any way they could. By Thursday afternoon on April 3, most of Indian River had power restored. The grocery store and gas stations were back in business.
One Week In…
We began major cleanup in our yard with some beautiful weather on Saturday, April 5. Sunny the entire weekend.
Sunday, we came home from church and our neighbor told us the fire department had been here to check on those that are still without power. Since we weren't home, we had a red tag tied at our house. They wouldn't take her word for it that we were alright. And they left an emergency contact message on our door. Then we lost our cellular network in our area. We were already relying on our data since the Wi–Fi was down and data was very spotty. But now, our whole area was completely out. In order to communicate with anyone, we had to drive into town to our church to use Wi–Fi.
Monday, April 7, day 9 without power, we woke up to a snowstorm! All we could do was laugh. Literally. LOL!
Pics below are Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, April 5-7. The extreme weather changes from day to day are crazy!
Community
While we were at the church on Monday letting everyone know we were incommunicado at our house, Andy received a call from one of the men at the church. He said they were helping with a mobile food bank at the school and wanted to know if we would like to help. So we headed to the school and found many volunteers preparing to pass out food to those in need. Vehicles were lining up to receive items. We began with instructions and a prayer. Our station bagged and handed out apple sauce 6 packs. There were many supplies– water, snacks, canned goods, etc. It was very cold and windy!
Restoration for Us?
We will probably be out of power for another week, at least. They have to completely rebuild our infrastructure. That's a lot more work than just restoring power. Plus, we need to have our service lines reattached to our home as well. Hopefully that doesn't mean even longer, after our street is restored. We'll see… but overall, we feel very blessed for God's protection and providence throughout this storm, and to be part of such an amazing community in Northern Michigan.
Day 10 Without Power
Petoskey is mostly back to normal.
Day 10– we saw the first signs of the power company. They drove down our street and cut the power lines that were still across the road and coiled them off to the side of the road. That was it. Maybe they were assessing the damage so they knew what all had to be done.
Day 10 outage map:
Day 11 Without Power
Day 11– Winter is back again- snow showers all day. At least the generator is still kicking! Our power company is Great Lakes Energy. On Day 11, looking at the outage in our area, it shows 72% of their customers in our county are still without power. No sign of anyone from the power company today.
Tourism & Maple Syrup Industries
Most of Mackinac Island, which is 80% State Park, is inaccessible. There is much work to be done for this popular tourist destination to reopen for the busy season. Yellow roads are clear, red are not. Other State Parks will be closed for possibly months as well. Another hard hit industry is the maple syrup farms. There is a large farm located one street over from us.
Day 12 Without Power
Day 12– It was quiet here until around 2 PM. Then gradually trucks began arriving on our street. Then a boatload of trucks with poles arrived around 3 PM! I counted eleven trucks!!!
I had a knock at the door from one of the workers. He was from Canada, about 4 1/2 hours from here. He says he knows this area well from snowmobiling in the winter and dirt bikes in the summer on our trail system. He said they've been driving the work trucks up and down the trails and he's gotten to know the trail system even better now. He said this is the closest he's been to home in a month. He was in Indiana before this. They just finished the lake side of Resort Road. He said they replaced ONE HUNDRED POLES on the lake side. They all had snapped! He said his supervisor would decide if our hookup was sound for them to connect our service wires to our house. If all goes well, we may have power within a day! We'll see…
It looked like they were having a meeting of the minds trying to decide how to approach the hot mess of our electric pole!
We had to leave to get to band practice at church. When we returned around 8 PM, they were packing up for the day. They didn't finish, but came close. They attached the service lines to our house!
The workers were headed to Gaylord for the night. They were staying at Tree Tops. One of the workers said they had been putting in up to 17 hour days! So thankful for these hard working crews. We met one guy from Belaire. He said he was the only Michigan guy working that crew, known as ″the Canadian Crew″. They all had Oreo cookie packs that Rhonda, our neighbor, had given them!
Power Today! (Friday, April 11)
Day 13– trucks began arriving around 8:30 AM. I counted 17 trucks on our street today!
By 11:30 AM, most of the trucks have left our street. Occasionally a truck will drive by. We believe they are checking everything before powering us up. One last run for the generator to make lunch!
And then… we had power! Still no internet. Andy worked on some yard cleanup all day.
Day 14 (Saturday, April 12)
Andy worked on the kitchen since he could finally run power tools. I worked on cleaning out some gardens. We had our neighbors over for a celebratory fire, our first outdoor fire of the year!
Day 15 (Sunday, April 13) – Internet & Conclusion
Spectrum showed up at 5 PM to hookup the wire from our house to the pole. We finally had internet again! Now begins the many months of cleanup. It will take a long time to get back to normal.
Hands down, the best thing to come out of this entire ordeal was the placement of our service lines to our house. The old lines used to make a humming sound almost constantly, like a truck running out in the driveway. It had to do with the tension and placement of the lines. They must have been in just the right spot to create this frequency. We haven't heard any sign of this as of yet. And that is a huge blessing. It used to drive me mad!
We are so blessed and thankful to have such a supportive community. Many people stepped up to help a neighbor, friend, or stranger, in need. So many homes were spared by large limbs and trees, miracles that only the providence of God could explain. We are so thankful the power was already out at our home before the wires ripped away from our house. We could have had a fire from that. Praise God for His protection and care for us and our community.
As we now have power, there are still those without power. Work is still being done. Here are a few updates:
