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Ice storm knocks out power over much of area

Brian Rowell Daily Press A thick layer of ice coats trees along 8th Avenue South in Escanaba Wednesday morning. A spring storm that brough a mixture of rain, freezing rain and snow to the area caused numerous power outages, downed trees and school cancellations.

ESCANABA — A late burst of winter weather battered the Central Upper Peninsula with freezing rain, snow and sleet Wednesday, knocking out power, creating hazardous driving conditions and closing schools and businesses across the area. “Historically, it is tough for us to get full-fledged ice storms in the U.P.,” said Matt Zika, meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Marquette Office. “I mean, I’ve been here 15 or 20 years and I could probably count two times where I’m like, ‘wow, that’s quite a bit of ice,’ and so, from that perspective, what you guys are going through down there is something that is relatively rare. Like, it’s a once-every-ten-to-twenty-year icing event that led to all the power outages and the trees and the limbs and things like that coming down.” According to Zika, the weather conditions were caused by a continual feed of cool, dry air coming from the east with cool temperatures higher in the atmosphere. The combination allowed for snow to melt as it fell through a warmer layer in the atmosphere before freezing near ground level as it struck trees, powerlines and roads. Between the weight of ice on powerlines and broken tree limbs taking out lines as they fell, the stage was set for outages. Some areas remained relatively unscathed by the power outages, but other areas were hard-hit by the storm. It was not immediately clear how many Alger-Delta Cooperative Electric Association customers were without power Wednesday. According to the co-op’s Facebook page, the electric provider’s main office was without power, forcing customers to temporarily report outages through a call center. The online map displaying outages was also down Wednesday morning, but returned shortly before 1 p.m. At that time, 14.4% of Menominee County customers and 30.5% of Delta County customers were without power. None of Alger-Delta’s 461 Schoolcraft County customers were without power. Roughly two percent of UPPCO customers across Delta, Menominee and Schoolcraft counties were without power at 10 a.m. Wednesday, but the distribution of those customers was far from even. Bark River Township was the hardest hit, with only 0.3% of UPPCO’s 347 customers having power. In Wells Township — which has the most UPPCO customers of any township, at 2,675 — 405 customers, or just over 15% of those served in the township, lost power. Neighboring Escanaba Township, the second most served township in UPPCO’s service area, lost power for 347 customers, or 23.2% of those served. Other hard-hit areas included Ensign Township (45.5% without power), Nahma Township (42.1% without power), Cornell Township (29.1% without power), and Ford River Township (12.8% without power). On the eastern side of Delta County and into Schoolcraft County, Cloverland Electric customers didn’t fair any better. A whopping 97.26% of Delta County customers and 13.62% of Schoolcraft County customers were without power Wednesday morning. The majority of Cloverland’s outages were in Garden Township (95.35% without power), Fairbanks Township (99.7% without power), and Schoolcraft County’s Thompson Township (81.85% without power). The inclement weather caused more than just the loss of power in Garden Township. Troopers from the Michigan State Police Gladstone Post closed the section of road on OO.25 Road between 19.5 Lane and 17th Road Wednesday morning due to multiple downed powerline poles, which blocked the roadway. Garden Township Fire Department assisted Michigan State Police troopers in directing traffic while Cloverland Electric crews cleared the scene. While power poles collapsing into the roadway was restricted to Garden Township, traffic disruptions caused by the storm were widespread. The outages cut power to the stoplight at the intersection of U.S. 2-41 and County Road 426, near the Verso paper mill, and Gladstone Public Safety warned motorists to be careful at the intersection on Delta Avenue and 9th Street, where the traffic light was out. The Delta County Sheriff’s Office also warned motorists to stay home if at all possible and to watch for fallen tree limbs in the road. Driving today should be significantly safer as temperatures warm and the ice from Wednesday’s storm begins melting, but the warm up may be short-lived. Temperatures are expected to drop again this weekend, and by next week, a second storm is possible. “There’s signs there’s going to be a system somewhere. Whether or not it comes up here far enough north to give us a (precipitation) event or not, it’s still a little in question, but there’s quite a few signals that there’s going to be a system somewhere in the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes Region by the middle of next week,” said Zika.

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