ESCANABA — A group of Upper Peninsula counties met last week to develop a plan in case of a region-wide power outage. Although some questions were answered, more work and study has to be done.

The eastern Upper Peninsula power vulnerability workshop exercise took place May 23 in Escanaba. The goal is to create a unified plan between six counties in the event of a multiple day, countywide power outage.

Bob Berbohm, Delta and Schoolcraft counties emergency management coordinator, said the event offered a good networking system between private and public sectors, and also answered questions about who does what and what can be done in the event of a countywide power outage.

The emergency crisis scenario planned for was a seven to 10-day power outage caused by a substation failing that would impact parts of Delta and Alger counties and all of Schoolcraft, Luce, Mackinac and Chippewa counties.

Berbohm explained each county has its own emergency action plan, but this event created a way for the counties to plan for an extreme situation as a unit. Most of the individual county plans rely on other counties sharing resources.

The agencies involved in the planning exercise were the emergency management coordinators from each of those counties, hospitals from each county, road commissions, law enforcement, American Transmission Company (ATC), Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCO), Cloverland Electric Cooperative, and other various energy providers.

“All six counties were well represented. The discussions were very involved and evolved even more to some more discussion, so when we do this again we know we need to expand slightly our invitation list,” Berbohm said.

He explained an example of an entity that would need to be invited for the next event would be telecommunication providers.

“In most emergencies (communication) becomes a highlight or struggle. In this case without power, there are still some unknowns for us — especially in rural areas,” he said. “So if the power is out, what is the reliability of cellphone coverage, what is the reliability of messaging and for how long?”

Berbohm said the point of the planning event