PETOSKEY — As the Petoskey community waits for the lights to turn back on, community members are helping clean up yards and checking on neighbors to make sure everyone is alright following the weekend’s destructive ice storms.
According to a Tuesday morning update on the city’s website, power restoration is trending in a positive direction.
“Consumers Energy and contractors are diligently working to repair critical infrastructure,” the post reads. “City line crews with assistance from Zeeland, Grand Haven and Traverse City Light and Power are assisting in the power restoration efforts. Our current estimate is 1-2 days before power may be restored. If you are in need of a ride to a warming shelter and live in the city limits, please contact city manager Shane Horn at (517) 403-7610 or Public Safety Detective William Bowen at (231) 330-0219. They will arrange rides to warming shelters.”
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More: Petoskey at total power loss, no timeline for restoration yet
Petoskey City Hall opened as a 24/7 warming station on Sunday and will remain open as long as people need somewhere to warm up, find something to eat and charge their phones or computers. Many people were enjoying the warmth at city hall on Tuesday, where Mayor John Murphy helped cook up some sloppy joes and volunteers and businesses provided other food donations.
“Right away on the first night, Saturday night, I talked to our city manager and I said ‘We have got to open a warming shelter here ASAP,’” Murphy said. “As you can see, there’s probably 50 people here now at least in the middle of the day. There’s been people sleeping overnight here. We have welcomed in anybody that needs a place.”
Jen and Payton Smock were at city hall to charge their devices on Tuesday.
“We’ve been out of power since Sunday night. We have six children in our family and three pets,” Jen said. “The house is pretty cold. We’re in the 40s right now.”
Payton, 11, said she saw lots of branches falling during the weekend storms.
“I think it’s kind of scary,” she said. “I don’t really like it.”
Without electricity, Payton said she has been staying entertained with puzzles, painting and a word search book.
Jen added that the family is planning to “just kind of ride it out” until their power is restored.
“We made it through (Monday) night, which was the coldest temperatures, so I think we’ll be OK at home and utilize city hall for charging stations and a little bit of warmth if we need during the day and continue cleaning up our yard,” she said.
More: Live: Thousands still without power mid-week following ice storms
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Val Meyerson, director of the Petoskey District Library, described the ice storms as “pretty horrendous.”
“I have two beautiful trees in my backyard that are decimated,” she said. “The odd part is like you listen and you hear this really pretty tinkling and then it dawns on you this is because of the trees blowing, and then you’re afraid because it’s windy and you’re waiting for the next branch to fall, and then sure enough a branch would fall and you’d hear it. That was the same this morning when I woke up to the sun. It’s so beautiful, but then it’s not because you know what it’s doing to the trees. Knowing that our trees are decimated in Petoskey is just heartbreaking.”
Meyerson was dropping off a donation of cookies to the city hall warming center. She said it’s “the way we are” to lend a helping hand to neighbors in need, adding that she has a friend who is an electrician who is driving around helping people get their generators set up.
“I think that’s the attitude of a lot of people in town, is just to help out and open their doors to people in need,” she said.
For updates and more information, visit petoskey.us/news_detail_T29_R210.php.
— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey community rallies together after destructive ice storm
Reporting by Jillian Fellows, The Petoskey News-Review / The Petoskey News-Review
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
