Checking In: So About That Ice Storm...
It hit here. We ran.
Hi friends, just checking in. The ice storm hit us hard up here in Petoskey. Today is Friday, right? Wow, what a week! My power went out last Saturday night around 11:30. I slept in a cold dark house, hoping it would come back by morning, but no such luck. The reports coming in on Sunday morning were already at emergency level. This was going to be a bad one.
And it was. According to the experts who know these things about ice and wind and weather in the Midwest, this was the worst ice event Michigan has seen since 1922.
I won’t go into the statistics, but my power was out for four days and I was one of the lucky ones. There are still pockets around me that are in the dark and don’t know when they’ll see the lights again.
On Sunday morning my grandson and I started looking for places to stay the night. (His house out in the boonies was also out of power, as was his record shop in town.) There were none. The power was out in most towns and villages and in those places that had been spared every available room was already booked.
We ended up going across the Mackinac Bridge to St. Ignace, some 40 miles to the north of us. Everyone else was trying to go south, away from the ice. We were just looking for a place with power. And St. Ignace had power.
Our next worry was the bridge itself. It had been shutting down off and on because of falling ice, and we needed to get to that other side. It’s the only way to get over there, unless we wanted to go hundreds of miles out of our way around Wisconsin or through Canada. It’s a fact of life up here. If the bridge closes and you want to get to the other side you’re screwed.
So I grabbed a few overnight things, grabbed my pills, my iPad and my phone, and we headed out, never dreaming it would be for more than one night. It ended up being four.
The hotel itself was fine and it had a dining room, so we didn’t have to go out, but hotel living is not home, especially when we didn’t pack for a lengthy stay. Still, we were warm and had lights and internet. We were not foolish enough to complain.
Another storm was scheduled to hit on Wednesday, so we reserved our room until Thursday morning, just in case, hoping we wouldn’t need it—but sure enough, the storm hit. More ice and high winds, causing damage where there had been none before, making it nearly impossible for the crews to work on clearing trees and repairing lines.
And of course our power was still out in Petoskey, and now they were saying ‘indefinitely’. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, the bridge closed, also ‘indefinitely’. Ice was falling from above, a huge slab narrowly missing a car, so that was it. The decision was made. And everyone on either side wishing to get across was, as I said, screwed.
Later on Wednesday afternoon I got word that my power was back on! Yay! But the bridge was still closed and we were on the wrong side. Home was across it.
We woke up on Thursday morning not knowing what to do. Would our room still be available, even if we wanted to stay? People were pouring in from everywhere, looking for shelter while they waited for the bridge to open again. We were about to call and find out about our room when around 8:30 AM I got notice on my phone that the bridge was open! So we packed up in a hurry and left before they changed their mind.
On the way back we had to take the back roads to Harbor Springs, where my grandson had to pick up packages, and the devastation in the woods was unbelievable. Trees down and cracked and broken everywhere. The roads had been cleared of debris, but the branches along the sides of the road made it look like a giant hand had swept through and crunched the trees.
We finally pulled into my apartment parking lot, glad to be back, but the sight of those beautiful trees across the way, now topless or mere standing sticks, was startling.
So that’s where I’ve been and that’s what I’ve been doing. Today I cleaned out the fridge and the freezer, throwing away a ton of food I wish I’d used up now. The stores aren’t stocked yet, so I’ll wait a while to replenish what I’ve lost.
My renters insurance won’t pay any reimbursement since my apartment wasn’t directly affected by the storm, other than a power outage, and if I’d wanted special riders that included food, lodging, and spoilage, I could have added them on if I’d known about them. Which of course I didn’t. Because they kind of forgot to offer them to me…
But I’m home and I’m okay while there are still other people who aren’t. I’m going to donate where I can and be grateful for our community. They came together to help one another out when they needed it most. People helping people. Driving people who didn’t have gas—or cars, cutting down trees and limbs, helping with generators, delivering food and medicine, manning warming shelters and food stations, checking on the elderly and incapacitated, monitoring Facebook to see where the need is greatest and being there…It was amazing.
It gives me hope. There are good people out there when we need them. And we’ll always need them. We’ll always need each other.
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Glad you are safely home.
SPARRING WITH MOTHER NATURE up there Mona! Wow. Glad you're safe and warm. She is a powerful force indeed. J