Photo submitted by Ryan Olds A fallen tree covered in ice is seen leaning against a house in Alpena following a severe snow and ice storm that hit Northeast Michigan on Sunday.

ALPENA – To answer a wide range of questions about our successful response to the second historically catastrophic storm to hit Northern Michigan in less than a year, Alpena Power today released the following informational narrative:

Beginning the morning of Sunday, March 15, and continuing through the afternoon of Monday, March 16, Alpena’s entire service territory, as well as a large portion of northeastern Michigan, experienced multiple rounds of snow, sleet, rain, freezing rain, significant ice accumulation and strong, gusty winds.

The storm caused widespread damage to Alpena’s distribution system, including broken poles, damaged distribution transformers, broken crossarms, downed primary, secondary, and service wire, and, to the largest extent, trees on primary, secondary, and service wires.

On March 15, Governor Gretchen Whitmer activated the State Emergency Operations Center to coordinate assistance. Then, on March 17, Whitmer issued a State of Emergency Declaration for seven northern Michigan counties that includes Alpena and Alcona in Alpena Power Company’s service territory.

Power outages began at approximately 9 p.m. on March 15 and the situation deteriorated quickly as ice buildup caused devastating damage to trees.

At the situation’s peak, on the afternoon of Monday, March 16, approximately 14,500 of Alpena’s 16,800 customers were without power.

Throughout the week, steady progress toward the restoration of power was made and the last customers that were not disconnected due to damage to customer owned equipment, such as a broken service mast, and waiting for repairs were restored at about 8:45 pm on March 22.

To assist in the restoration, Alpena Power received aid from:

– Thunder Bay Tree Service

– The City of Lowell

– Sebewaing Light and Water

– City of Bay City

– City of Sturgis

– City of Lansing

– Home works Tri-County Cooperative

– Thumb Electric Cooperative

– Hydaker-Wheatlake Company

– Premium Utility Contracting

– KappanTreeService

Comments from Ken Dragiewicz, Alpena Power President and COO

“The second catastrophic ice storm in less than a year again caused significant damage across northeastern Michigan. Many of us had our homes and businesses damaged, suffered lost income from closed businesses, and spent multiple nights cold and in the dark wondering when power was going to be restored.”

“We are proud of the emergency work we did under extreme circumstances to serve our community. I want to assure our customers that we did everything in our power to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. Alpena Power is committed to serving our community and continuing to invest in the grid to limit future outages.”

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. How did this storm compare to last year’s storm?

This storm brought different challenges than last year’s storm. In 2025 the entire Northern Michigan power transmission grid went down for nearly two days, causing all our customers to lose power and requiring Alpena Power to execute its black start process, which significantly added to restoration times.

While the Northern Michigan power transmission grid remained energized during this year’s storm, significant amounts of snow and sleet caused travel and access issues, and storm damage to the distribution system this year was comparable to the 2025 storm.

2. How did outage minutes compare to last year?

The 2025 ice storm resulted in about 94,000,000 customer outage minutes, whereas the 2026 ice storm resulted in a preliminary estimate of about 28,000,000 outage minutes. While this is less than the 2025 storm, over half of the 2025 minutes were due to the transmission grid outage.

3. How do these storms compare to other major outages?

The third largest storm of the last 30 years was in 2012, resulting in 2,580,000 outage minutes, making the 2026 ice storm about 11 times larger.

4. Will I be charged for electricity usage during the ice storm outage?

No. Electricity is billed to customers only after it has been used. Therefore, if your power was out during the ice storm, you will not be charged for electricity usage.

5. Who is responsible for paying for ice storm damage?

In the immediate aftermath of a storm, our focus is on outage restoration. With that complete, we then begin to determine the cost of damage to the grid (power lines, poles, transformers, etc.), covering everything but equipment directly attached to your home. As always, customers are only responsible for equipment attached to their home or building, starting with the mast.

6. Is Alpena Power responsible for downed trees on my property?

No. While Alpena Power operates a regular vegetation management program to protect power lines, trees are the responsibility of the property owner.

THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY

Alpena Power workers take pride in serving our community.

Thank you for the support provided to our storm recovery team as we worked to restore power to our service area.

We are committed to investing in the grid to strengthen it against catastrophic storms like this in the future.