Photo by Steve Schulwitz A large tree lays across River Street in Alpena on Monday after an ice storm produced a heavy buildup of ice in the Alpena area. Damaged and fallen trees were littered throughout the city on Monday.

ALPENA — Alpena County and Alcona are once again facing a long recovery after a second severe ice storm in a year devastated the Alpena area on Sunday.

As of 9:24 a.m. Monday, over 83% of Alpena Power Company’s customers are without power., according to preliminary data on the utility’s outage map.

According to Consumer Energy, 93.8% of its customers in Alcona County were without power and ready for crews to make repairs.

Steve Shultz, Alpena engineer, said that in the city, the biggest problem is that there are a lot of trees that have fallen due to the weight of the ice and the wind that accompanied the storm that also dropped several feet of snow north of Alpena.

“The roads are pretty clear otherwise, there was a good melt. Many of the trees are lying on powerlines and cannot be cleared at the moment, Shultz said. “We’re handling everything the best we can and the crews are well rested.”

He asked for people to have patience as city crews are working as quickly as they can.

Fuel availability is another issue Shultz’s crew is having to overcome. They fuel up at local gas stations, but everyone else is also stopping for fuel at the same time.

“The biggest thing is the trees, more could come down yet with some of the winds we’re having,” Shultz said.

Alpena Fire Chief Andy Marceau said that the fire department started getting calls at around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday, with calls for power lines down, people without oxygen, and trees falling.

He said there was a good crew on, and they upticked the crew to 12 employees at 2 a.m. Monday morning when there was a steady flow of calls to 911.

“We were able to handle all the calls,” Marceau said. “That’s over fully staffed for us. We run three to nine people out per shift.”

There were 17 calls between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., Marceau said. Calls ranged from medical calls, to trees falling, to powerlines.

Marceau warned people to not touch any lines if they’re down, and to call 911 or wait until the power company comes through.

Marceau said there are a lot of crews on their way to help.

“Look after your friends, family, and neighbors,” Marceau said.

Marceau expressed concern about the low temperatures expected Monday night for the people that do not have heat due to the power outages.

Alpena County Road Commission Managing Director Ryan Brege said crews have been out since Sunday night and many went out again on Monday morning..

“Ultimately the ice is causing us troubles,” he said. “On top of that, between low hanging lines and downed trees, there are some roads we couldn’t initially plow so now we have build up of ice on the roads”

Crews had to stop for a while due to low hanging powerlines that vehicles could not get under.

He asked for the community to be patient.

“It’s gonna take us a while to get to everything,” Brege said. “We realize there’s gonna have to be some clean up.

MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena went on their back up generator at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Austin Conway, MyMichigan Health health system emergency manager, said in a statement.

The hospital operated off its back-up power source by 11:50 a.m. on Monday. He added some employees at MyMichigan Alpena have struggled to get to work, which has forced it to run a little short.

“We have experienced some staffing challenges due to the ice storm, as many of our team members are also dealing with power outages and difficult travel conditions,” Conway said. “However, our staff continue to go above and beyond to ensure patients receive the care they need. We are grateful for their dedication and for the support of our community, which continues to remind us that when we work together, we can get through anything.”

“Our team is well prepared to respond to the challenges this ice storm has created, just as we did last year,” Conway said. “The safety of our patients, staff and community remains our top priority, and we have plans in place to ensure care continues without interruption. While some clinics and services have closed for the day, our Emergency Department remains open and we are here to serve the community should they need our services.”

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.