In April, many of our friends in Michigan were hit with severe ice storms, causing massive damage throughout the state. Three Frontier Power linemen volunteered to help Great Lakes Energy Cooperative, located in the northern area of the main part of the state. First-class linemen JR McCoy, Bill Mizer, and Josh Haumschild left April 1st and returned home April 11th.
Great Lakes Energy began experiencing outages on March 29th due to icy conditions that accumulated on trees, wires, poles, and other equipment, pulling services down to the ground. This resulted in broken poles, lines, and damaged transformers, among other catastrophic losses.
Once power began being restored, the severe weather just kept coming. Imagine how much ice and weight three to five days of sleet, freezing rain, high winds, and snow can cause. Crews were getting power restored, only to have more outages created by the devastating weather. To put things into perspective, Great Lakes Energy usually replaces about 800 poles during maintenance each year. During these storms alone, they’ve replaced approximately 3,000 poles! They are not just restoring power, but having to rebuild their system. Many of the experienced linemen who have provided mutual aid across the country for several years, stated they have never seen this much destruction.
Our linemen were part of nearly 1500 people from around the country who provided mutual aid to the co-op. So many crews of different trades were needed that Great Lakes Energy partnered with a neighboring electric company and set up Storm Camp at their local fairgrounds to house and provide meals and services to all personnel there to help them.
Even though Great Lakes Energy members have power restored, the cleanup and final rebuilding will take some time. Frontier Power wishes the Great Lakes staff and members all the best.
Photos courtesy of Great Lakes Energy, Jessica Acha-Myers (member of Great Lakes Energy) and Bill Mizer.
