14-04-2025
Up North residents hit by ice storm endure cold, power outages: 'How are we gonna manage?'
Elizabeth Montez, 44, lives in the rural outskirts of Harbor Springs. When severe ice storms swept through northern Michigan last month, she and her family hunkered down in a Traverse City hotel.
When Montez returned to her home, "it was like driving into an apocalypse."
Montez, a member of the Waganikising Odawa (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians), told the Free Press she had been without power for about two weeks after the storms. She and her family — a husband and two children, ages six and 11 — finally received power back Saturday night.
"We realized, like, oh my gosh, how are we gonna manage in this house that's 40 degrees with two little kids and stuff? So we bundled up," Montez said. "We all slept in one bed to keep each other warm and everything. It was really scary because we could still hear all of the trees falling all around."
Montez had no power, water, or heat for nearly two weeks — and she couldn't work her remote job without internet and power. She has spent the month of April scrambling to keep her family warm while making sure she can keep her job. And she says she's not alone.
As crews work to address the damage and reconnect residents to the power grid — which is operated in northern counties by Great Lakes Energy — rural citizens like Montez feel like they've been left behind in the aftermath of a storm that prompted a state of emergency declaration from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Whitmer doubled down Friday, requesting a Presidential Emergency Declaration following her White House visit with President Donald Trump.
'Approval of this request would bring critical federal resources to support local response operations that are still ongoing,' said Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police.
Meredith Migizi's team at Miigwech Inc. in Alanson is on the ground addressing the emergency every day. To her, help can't come soon enough.
Migizi's community center, Miigwech Inc., usually aims to serve the indigenous population in Emmet County. But Migizi, who herself is Wagankising Odawa, said she has been serving hundreds of people — indigenous or not — from half a dozen different counties across the state as people cope with the fallout.
"We typically service indigenous folks, right?" Migizi said. "But anybody who walks through those doors, if they need something, we provide it."
Migizi said she is still seeing life-or-death situations two weeks after the storm concluded. Recently, an elderly man has been using the electricity available at Miigwech to charge his wife's glucose monitor.
"That's a life or death situation with his wife. I mean, those are the types of situations that people need to know about," Migizi said.
She feels like her community up north — indigenous and nonindigenous alike — has been left behind. While power has been restored to suburban centers like Petoskey, rural residents at the top of the mitten continue to struggle without power.
"You can definitely see the haves and have-nots of this situation," Migizi said. "Because when I drive into — to me personally — when I drive into Petoskey, it's like nothing ever happened and people are just cleaning their yards. Meanwhile, my neighbors are still without heat, water, and electricity."
Montez said the same: "Everything was directed back to Petoskey, but it was the rural people who were most affected, and yet we had the least support out here."
Migizi said everyone is affected, from rural residents to visitors who have summer homes up north. She worries that seasonal travelers may be shocked to see the idyllic landscape ravaged by widespead ecological damage. On Monday, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources told MLive that nearly 1 million acres of state forests have been damaged.
"The Anishinaabe part of me is like, this is a bigger ecological issue that I don't think people are realizing," Migizi said. "Those folks coming up at the end of May, thinking that they can just open up their cottage, are in for a rude awakening."
DNR Cleanup map: Thousands still without power in Michigan. Officials share resource links, cleanup map
Outside of Montez's Emmet County home, a tree laid toppled on a powerline feeding into her house.
She first reported the damaged line two or three days after returning home. Then, she reported it again. After a few days without the line being serviced, she reported it again.
"I have this really damaged line that I've reported three times over 10 days at that point, and there's power coming to our meter, but our line is damaged," Montez said.
Without a response from Great Lakes Energy, she called an electrician. "And the electrician was like, 'This is so dangerous, you guys. You know, this is how house fires start. You guys are in danger,'" Montez recalled.
It was only after the electrician sent a "strongly worded email" to Great Lakes Energy that the fire hazard was fixed.
"At that point, we were 10 days into it, they sent someone out immediately," Montez said. "But it had been 10 days and I had reported it three times; no one had bothered to come disconnect this really dangerous line."
Migizi said stories like Montez' are common in her community. Support from the county and the state has been hard to come by, and the communication has been difficult to understand.
"And it's bad enough that people are without power and their homes are destroyed, but then the people that are supposed to be helping them don't even know what's going on," Migizi said.
Great Lakes Energy's online outage map indicates there are still nearly 2,000 people without power in their service area — with a majority of outages in Otsego, Charlevoix, Montmorency and Emmet counties. Outages are down substantially from reports last week, which indicated 1,700 homes were without power in Emmet County on Friday.
In a video address posted to YouTube Thursday, President and CEO of Great Lakes Energy Shaun Lamp said he expected service to be restored to a majority of customers soon.
"The damage caused by this storm is unprecedented. Please understand with damage of this scale what we share today may change," Lamp said. "The situation is shifting hour by hour as new damage continues to be uncovered as we work in the more remote areas."
Great Lakes Energy did not respond to Free Press requests for comment.
As power trickles back to rural communities up North, Migizi is frustrated with the strain the storm has put on her community, but she is willing to do what it takes to help people get by. Donations of any kind — either in the form of gas cards so people can stay warm in their car or simple necessities, like menstrual products — can be sent online through a Help Link or in person. They are necessary and appreciated, Migizi said.
"It may seem silly, but I'll take hard donations at this point if it means we can get it into the hands of our community," Migizi said.
Serving her community through a crisis is all in the name, she said.
"Miigwech (Incorporated) is called Miigwech because it literally means 'I have what I need,'" Migizi said. "And then in modern times, it means 'thank you.' There's a reason that we're called Miigwech, and anybody that comes through that door, I'm hoping that they're leaving saying Miigwech because at least they have what they need."
Contact Liam Rappleye: LRappleye@
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Northern Michigan residents still without power weeks after ice storm
