News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Power Co. President Ken Dragiewicz shows off some of the damaged power poles that needed to be replaced after an ice storm hit the Alpena area late last month.

ALPENA — The power companies and lineworkers in Northeast Michigan are finally able to exhale a little, as a large brunt of the power outages caused by an ice storm last month have been addressed.

It took weeks, thousands of utility workers working around the clock, and a large number of power poles and cables, but life is now returning to normal for people who had lost power for many days.

When the storm began late on March 28, there were sporadic power outages in the area, but the outages increased substantially when a second wave of ice fell on the afternoon of March 29. As the trees fell on power lines and calls poured in from customers, utility leaders in the area quickly realized this wasn’t the typical storm or power outage.

Allan Berg, CEO of Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op, said the utility knew its entire system was at risk of failure and that it could be a large task to restore power to all of its members. He said describing the damage to the electrical system is difficult, but he said the one word he would use to describe it would be catastrophic.

“We knew early on that the damage was going to be extreme and it would be system-wide,” Berg said. “That storm didn’t leave a mile that was unscathed.”

From the start, Berg updated PIE&G members on the damage and restoration efforts. He also had to notify them that they should be prepared to be without power for a long period of time and even recommended that some people seek other accommodations until power was restored.

The possibility of an ice storm was forecasted by the National Weather Service, which issued an ice storm warning for most of northern Michigan on March 29, after the initial round of ice fell and before the second round moved into the area. Berg said even before that, he notified all of his employees that they could be needed, and he reached out to mutual aid partners to see if they would be available to help. He said that because the extent of the damage was so clear early on, he was also able to order needed power poles, transformers, cable, and other items needed to repair the damaged system.

At the blackout’s peak, Berg said all of PIE&G’s 35,344 lost power, and it took 1,550 new power poles, 409 crews of linemen made up of 1,430 utility workers, and miles and miles of wire to begin to bring electricity back, Berg said.

Berg said PIE&G is almost 100% restored, and many of the people who are still without power are those who have to hire a contractor to make repairs on their property.

Also, Berg said, none of the linemen or anyone involved in the power restoration or tree removal efforts were injured since the power went out.

“I’m proud to say that we had nothing concerning from a safety standpoint, and from the start, safety was always our highest priority above everything else,” he said.

Although all of its 16,750 customers lost power, Alpena Power President Ken Dragiewicz said the damage to its system wasn’t as horrific as PIE&G’s. He said there were only 32 broken utility poles and 18 transformers that needed to be replaced. Dragiewicz said the first power outages were reported at about 4 a.m. on March 29, and the utility company had 100% restoration complete on April 10.

Dragiewicz said the most linemen working in the field at one time was 109. He said like PIE&G, there were no significant injuries to them, and operations went as smoothly as they could, considering the challenges the utility workers faced.

“We had a few guys who had some bumps and bruises or a strain, but that is expected when you work 16 hours a day doing this type of work in poor conditions,” he said.

Dragiewicz said the repairs made to Alpena Power’s system should hold and be able to withstand spring thunderstorms and high winds. He said that doesn’t mean there won’t be brief and isolated power outages in the future, however.

For PIE&G, it isn’t that simple, Berg said.

He said during repairs, to ensure people received power as quickly as possible, some repairs are only temporary, and crews will be needed to return to make more permanent fixes. Berg said that when that happens, some members will experience brief power outages, but nothing like what they just experienced.

“We do have a lot of go-backs where we have to return to complete some repairs,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do, and this isn’t over for us. So, there could be short power outages so we can get our work completed.”

Berg said that because there are still many damaged trees, some may fall on power lines during storms or high winds. He said those types of repairs will also be able to be addressed quickly.

Both Berg and Dragiewicz were happy to see that the State of Michigan designated Friday as Lineman Appreciation Day. Both men said that without the help of the utility crews from around the country, it would have taken significantly longer to be restored.

“It would have taken forever,” Berg said. “It wouldn’t have been impossible, but it would have taken much longer. We basically had a response like they do for hurricanes, because no utility would have been able to do this themselves as quickly as we all have.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@TheAlpenaNews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.