The North Central State Trail, which runs from Gaylord to Mackinaw City, is covered in tree debris on March 31, 2025. Photo by Teresa Homsi, WCMU

Fifty million dollars in federal aid is coming to Northern Michigan after months of local and state officials advocating for relief from the historic ice storm that swept through the region in March.

The decision was announced on Tuesday by President Donald Trump in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

“I just spoke with Governor Gretchen Whitmer to let her know I am approving $50 million for the wonderful State of Michigan for public assistance to help them recover from the terrible winter storms they endured,” Trump wrote. “It was my honor to do so!”

The ice storm destroyed or damaged an estimated three million acres of land, 919,500 acres of which was state forest, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

While the details on the relief are not clear, local officials say they are excited to hear the funding has been approved.

“It is going to be a great deal to our county,” said Presque Isle County Commissioner Robin Hughes. “We’ve been looking forward to that and looking forward to the answer when it was going to come through. To actually see it coming through, I was very excited to see it.”

Montmorency County was hit hard by the storm, and officials are still finding ways to fund cleanup. Village of Hillman manager David Post says that their biggest cost was paying workers overtime to help the village recover.

“We would basically be trying to recover what we already spent,” Post said. “We rented equipment and spent a lot of time cleaning up in the village hauling brush away.”

Alpena County Administrator Jesse Osmer said that the county will also be reallocating funding that was used during and after the storm.

“We have a lot of overtime from our grounds maintenance crew,” Osmer said. “We have cleanup on county property. Obviously, we want to look at our generators that were working overtime that week.”

Janet Koch is the deputy administrator for Antrim County. She said that although Antrim did not sustain as much damage as surrounding areas, downed trees, debris and power outages took a toll on the eastern and northwestern parts of the county.

“Our road commission was out hundreds of thousands of dollars for hiring a tree clearing crew from downstate to get our many, many roads that were filled with debris cleared,” Koch said.

She said that federal aid is good news for Michigan, and the county will be doing its best to ensure the funds are allocated for the best possible use.

“One hopes that the money would be distributed to those who need it most,” Koch said.

Blace Carpenter can be reached at bcarpenter@thealpenanews.com. This story was produced by the Michigan News Group Internship Program, a collaboration between WCMU Public Media and local newspapers in central and northern Michigan. The program’s mission is to train the next generation of journalists and combat the rise of rural news deserts.