Residents still recovering from windstorm and power outages

Large trampoline in tree along Sharon Hollow Road.

Like most of the rest of Michigan’s lower peninsula, the Manchester area experienced a windstorm on Wednesday that disrupted daily life, caused property damage, and resulted in no school for a day, due to widespread power outages.

The actual windstorm on Wednesday caused dangerous driving conditions with trees and branches down in roads, rendering some impassable. At one point, M-52 was closed due to an over-turned semi in one location and a large tree over the road in another. With sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts of over 60 mph, area residents lost shingles off their roof, siding, downspouts and gutters, not to mention lawn furniture. Frank’s Place, on Main Street lost all of the shingles from its roof over the course of the day. Klager Elementary School held indoor recess because of wind, the first time in memory that call had been made, according to principal Karin Villarreal. The school also lost a huge tree out front by the road due to wind while school was in session.

Residents in the townships and isolated households in the village began to lose power Wednesday morning but the village as a whole retained power until very early Thursday morning, at which point the entire village lost power until early Friday morning. Village manager Jeff Wallace reports that it is his understanding that the village power outage was due to large 46K power lines down west of Brooklyn. Our area is served by Consumers Power on the western side and Detroit Edison on the eastern side, both of whom have had crews out working round the clock to restore power. Consumers reported more than 9,000 downed wires and 1,300 broken utility poles in their coverage area. DTE reported a third of their customers lost power. As of Sunday, some customers still did not have power.

The Manchester Community Schools were closed on Thursday, as none of the four buildings had power. While Thursday evening it was still unclear whether there would be school Friday, school was held as the power was back on by the next morning. Some students did not attend or arrived late as their families had taken refuge in other communities because of lack of power at their homes, but superintendent Cherie Vannatter reported that the district-wide the attendance was over 75%, so the day will count toward their total. She also reported that other than the tree down at Klager and the food that had to be thrown out from the walk-in coolers, the school did not suffer any damage.

With temperatures remaining below freezing and snow forecast for the beginning of the week, hopefully power will be successfully restored to everyone, but if you have elderly, disabled or geographically isolated relatives or neighbors you haven’t talked to since the power outage, take time to check up on them and make sure they are okay.

Sunday evening, trucks working on power lines in Bridgewater Township. Photo courtesy of Amber Burkhardt-Sidebottom.

Tree down across power lines along M-52. Photo courtesy of Krista Jarvis.

Tree down along City Road on Thursday.

Tree down in front of Klager Elementary, Wednesday afternoon.

Parking blocked off in front of Frank’s Place and Pyramid, Wednesday, as shingles landed on the sidewalk.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.