Power outages left many homes, businesses in the dark

Tanya Berkebile | Cadillac News Employees of Van Drie Home Furniture continued to work although the power outage at the south end of town left them without electricity and lights. In the warehouse, shown here, workers opened the doors to let light in. In the showroom, employees used flashlights to find their way around.

Various storms and high winds in the area not only caused damage to structures and property Monday afternoon into the late evening, but also left thousands of households without power.

As of Tuesday morning, 4,544 Consumers Energy customers in Missaukee and Wexford counties were experiencing power outages. By 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, 2,100 customers were without power.

“For most of the customers, the outage began around 7 (Monday night),” said Consumers Energy spokesman Tim Pietryga. “The majority of outages were caused by high winds which caused trees limbs to fall on power lines.”

Consumers Energy crews, along with 42 from other states, have been working around the state to restore power. As of Tuesday evening, there were 95,000 customers in the state without power.

“We expect the majority of power (in Wexford and Missaukee counties) to be restored by Thursday,” Pietryga said. “Some extreme cases may not see their power restored until Friday.”

Many Great Lakes Energy customers also found themselves without power. Smaller outages were reported in Lake, Missaukee and Wexford counties, along with around 137 in Osceola County.

“These areas didn't get it as bad as those south of Osceola County,” said Dave Guzniczak, spokesperson for Great Lakes Energy.

“Because of the amount of tree damage, it may take some time for power to be restored. We have to physically remove the trees, that is what takes the most time.”

The company reported 15 poles were broken in storms. Great Lakes Energy crews, assisted by contracted line crews, were continuing to clean up and repair lines Tuesday afternoon.

Guzniczak expected most customers would have power restored Tuesday, although some areas may be fixed today at the earliest.

Many area businesses dealt with the power outages the best they could. At Van Drie Home Furnishings in Cadillac, employees attempted to have business as usual.

“It is really difficult to get much done,” manager Joe Rozeveld said. “We have no phone, no lights and no computers. We can't make deliveries because we can't pull invoices off the computers. We can't even take our customers in some areas because of safety issues - we have flashlights, but it is still difficult to see.”

McGuire's Resort also was up and running without electricity. The business made due with bottled water, three generators and a gas stove for cooking.

“Our chef used the gas stove, just without much light,” Mike McGuire said. “We put together what we could. The Rotary was here, and we moved them outside under a tent. It worked out.”

Although some businesses like McGuire's and Van Drie worked through the outage, many other businesses on the south end of Cadillac on Business U.S. 131 weren't able to operate including Newday Med Spa and Cadillac Family Physicians.

Employees at Newday spent much of the morning using a cell phone to cancel appointments, since electricity was needed for many treatments.

Power to those businesses was restored sometime in the early afternoon Tuesday.

tberkebile@cadillacnews.com | 775-NEWS (6397)