The winter storm on Dec. 29 knocked out power for many Michiganders, including over 10,000 Clare County residents who were among the hardest-hit.

Warming centers were set up for those without power. The Pere-Marquette Library in Clare said they had almost 300 people in their building on Monday, making use of the heat and internet they had available. Online, the people in the MI Clare County Facebook Page are asking the community for help keeping themselves and their family warm amidst the power outages. One user mentioned living in a mobile home, and having their home drop to 39 degrees due to the lack of heat.

“I have an 11 month old baby and have had no power for about 3 days,” said Becka Green, a resident of Clare County and another user of the MI Clare County Facebook Page. “All of our food went bad in our refrigerator and freezer, but I was able to save some of my bagged fruits for the baby in my freezer and a few bags of milk. The only way we have to heat our house is our gas stove, which keeps our house temperature at a steady 64 degrees. Our next door neighbors, who we don’t know very well since we moved in recently, brought us over some purified water for the baby. They have a generator, and let us warm up in their house and give our baby a bath.”

While the number of people without power has dropped drastically, over 3,000 people were still without power on the morning of Dec. 30, and some won’t have electricity until the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, according to estimates on the Consumer’s Energy outage map.

“Consumers Energy prepares for storms well in advance, keeping an eye on storm systems and calling in workers who were off on their holiday break,” said West Michigan Media Relations Specialist for CMS Energy & Consumers Energy, Trisha Bloembergen. “There were a few waves to this storm. The first wave brought ice to much of the area, which resulted in many people losing power. 1 inch of ice on powerlines is equal to about 500 pounds of pressure on the lines– about the same weight as a baby piano. The second wave brough high winds and snow, making it dangerous for our technicians to work on the power lines.”

Bloembergen said that over 630 crews were dispatched to fix the outages on Tuesday morning, as it was the first “better-weather” day. However, some folks are expressing anger at the progress Consumers Energy is making.

“We understand how frustrating this can be, especially during the holiday season,” Bloembergen said. “We’ve actually had some customers call in with threats of violence, but [Consumers Energy] wants to thank our customers for their patience and grace when dealing with this. Our crews are working tirelessly to ensure the power returns in time to celebrate the holidays.”

Homeworks Tri-County Electric Cooperative is also helping people get their power back online. Because of the sustained ice on power lines, another pole had been brought down, bringing their member outage county up to 5,500 on Tuesday morning. The damage to the electrical lines means that many of their customers were out of power through New Years Eve. According to their post on Facebook, The Cooperative also wanted to thank their customers for their patience, and that they appreciate every single one of them.

“Our crews are facing extremely challenging conditions,” said HomeWorks CEO Chris O’Neill. “All of the restoration progress we had made over the weekend was erased with Sunday’s worsening weather, which wreaked havoc on our system. Ice-covered roads, falling trees, and severely damaged infrastructure require us to work carefully and methodically to ensure the safety of our employees and the public while repairing our system and restoring power.”

The Cooperative has called in several mutual aid line crews from other utilities around the state, along with contracted line and tree crews, to assist with restoration and rebuilding efforts.

“It’s been all hands on deck, and it will be for the duration of this storm,” said O’Neill. “Our entire workforce is focused on doing what it takes to restore power to every single member just as quickly as conditions will allow.”

Downed powerlines should always be treated as though they are live. As such, it’s recommended to stay 30 feet from one at all times. The Tri-County Electric Cooperative also reminds folks to remain clear of downed power lines, downed trees, and crews working in the rights of way.