ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ann Arbor was one of the harder-hit areas after Wednesday’s winter ice storm. Damages and power outages had the community fighting back against the utility company.
Many people in the community woke up Thursday (Feb. 23) morning with their cars damaged or had to drive around the whole mess. Their concern is the matter may get worse heading into the weekend.
The area was filled with massive tree limbs that had already fallen or were snapping into pieces on roadways and onto vehicles.
“I was parking right here, so it missed me by about two feet,” said Shoki Mullick.
Then came the power outages and falling ice.
“It’s terrifying, honestly,” Yanna Cassell. “I had my hat on earlier to try and make sure no ice fell on me like that.”
The whole matter was indeed a mess.
“I mean, it’s certainly a mess out there right now,” said Greg Woodring. “I heard a large sound, and several of my lights went out. The tree actually fell on my meter and blew several fuses causing electricity to be arcing in my basement.”
Woodring is the president of Ann Arbor for Public Power, a grassroots organization pushing for the city to have its own utility service.
Read: Nonprofit calls for public power in Ann Arbor amid power outages
“As a general rule, they’re more reliable, they are cheaper, and they allow us to choose where our power comes from,” Woodring said.
Communities like Traverse City, Chelsea, and Lansing already have one. Woodring took a closer look at the outages in Lansing.
“They had a very similar storm,” Woodring said. “Many of the people outside of Lansing faced outages in consumer’s territory. There was recently an article that said about 6,000 people were out of power. Lansing, at its worst, reported 100 outages. I mean, the difference is really clear.”
While power companies don’t control mother nature, Woodring believes it’s not a reason for people to have to sit in the dark.
“When you invest in your infrastructure, it holds up the storms like this better,” Woodring said.
Meanwhile, DTE Energy announced that customers experienced 21% fewer power interruptions in 2022 than in 2021. they also said that after significant tree trimming and equipment upgrades last year, Washtenaw County saw a 69% reliability improvement on the circuits that were worked on.
Ann Arbor is waiting on results from a study before deciding if they want to move forward with its own power company.
More: Winter ice storm causing big problems for drivers in Washtenaw County