KALAMAZOO, Michigan — When Anna Capling, a labor and delivery nurse in Livonia, Michigan, heard from relatives on Wednesday that their lights were flickering amid an approaching ice storm, she got up to charge her phone in case the power went out.
Then she heard a loud bang and everything went dark. Days later she still has no power.
“It’s just frustrating,” Ms. Capling said. “It almost feels a little depressing because you just have no idea when it will come back up.”
Ms. Capling was one of hundreds of thousands of southern Michigan customers still trying to stay warm on Saturday as power outages ravaged the region, days after a winter storm that led to at least one death.
Snow, sleet and wind gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour hammered the Upper Midwest Wednesday night, causing chaos and ice-covering trees and power lines.
The resulting power cuts sent people to warming centers opened by local governments and the American Red Cross. Nearly 400,000 customers in Michigan were without power Saturday night. according to PowerOutage.us.
It is a well-known circumstance, many residents said in interviews. According to the Burgers Nutsraadan Illinois-based nonprofit that rates utilities across the country, Michigan is one of the worst states for power reliability.
A 2021 report from the organization ranked fifth worst in state, with the average customer out more than nine hours each year at a major event. Michigan is also among the worst for outage recovery, which usually takes an average of about six hours, the report said.
DTE Energy, one of Michigan’s largest energy companies, said 75 percent of its customers would have power restored by Saturday and most of the remaining outages would be fixed by the end of Sunday. The company said more than 4,000 workers were on site to help restore power to more than 235,000 customers throughout Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Another utility in the state, Consumers Energy, estimated that power would be restored in most areas by Sunday, but may not be until Monday for some locations. Nearly 115,000 of the company’s customers are without power in southern Michigan, including Kalamazoo.
For some weathering the winter storm, this is the second blackout in six months. Severe thunderstorms in August led to blackouts across the country. Ms Capling said she was without power for three days last summer. Both times she lost all her food.
“A lot of people can’t afford that,” she says. “Especially with the rising cost of groceries right now, it’s extremely frustrating and distressing.”
Ben Saltsman, who lives in Bloomfield Township and was without power for two days, said he has sort of a routine now due to the frequency of blackouts. First he empties his ice machine; he has learned from experience that it causes a huge mess. He then clears out his fridge and takes the food to friends who do have electricity.
“We hope they’re not eating the good stuff,” he said.
Ms Capling said she, her husband and four of her children, ranging from 1 to 18, have temporarily moved in with her father-in-law in Pinckney. Her husband can work from home, but she has had to commute an hour from work. Her children also missed three days of school.
“My 3½-year-old just asks when we can go home,” Ms. Capling said.
The American Red Cross has also opened four warming centers in southern Michigan, where cots, hot meals and water are available. At one point, Ann Arbor, 40 percent of which has lost power, had four heating centers open, but Saturday night was down to just one, city officials said.
When Kathy Space woke up early Thursday in her Portage home and tried to turn on the lights, she knew right away she was in trouble.
Ms Space, 68, had recently come home from hospital after severe kidney problems. She weighs just over 80 pounds, making it difficult for her to get warm.
She and her husband, Thomas, watched as the thermometer in their home dipped into the 60s. When Mrs. Space began to experience headaches and shortness of breath, the two decided it was time to leave.
“The lower my body temperature gets, the more things don’t start working,” she added.
The Spaces tried calling nearby hotels, but many were sold out and available rooms were too expensive. Mr. Space found the American Red Cross shelter in Kalamazoo, so the couple grabbed what they needed from their home and spent the night there on Friday night.
“It was almost a blessing to be able to walk in here and get a bed,” she said. “We didn’t know it was here.”
The region is expected to have low temperatures on Saturday night, with a minimum of almost 28 degrees, and sunny skies on Sunday, with temperatures in the mid-40s before strong winds and rain push into the area, according to the National Weather Service forecast.