I spent last weekend in Leelanau County and saw firsthand the devastation caused by last month’s August 2nd storm. That day dawned with a typical Michigan forecast — warm, with a chance of thunderstorms. Within a few hours, the “chance” had turned to certainty, and a freakish storm slammed into the Traverse City area. The storm continued, wave after wave, for the next ten hours, uprooting trees, destroying homes, and cutting power to tens of thousands of northern Michigan homes.

So what do Wolverine and the members do when a major storm causes widespread outages? We do what cooperatives do best — we work together. Wolverine and the members assess damage to their respective systems, while the Michigan Electric Cooperative Association (MECA) recruits assistance from unaffected cooperatives and municipals in the form of additional linemen and equipment. Then, when it is safe, we go into action.

Wolverine and the member distribution cooperatives begin work as soon as the weather clears. Wolverine concentrates first on restoring the high voltage system, which took about 12 hours after this storm. Then Wolverine linemen regroup and join the members to assist them until the distribution system is completely restored. In this case, work was slowed by many downed trees, which workers had to clear just to reach the affected areas.

Storm restoration requires tremendous effort from our linemen, and it requires considerable coordination to restore service safely and efficiently. Energy Control Center (ECC) personnel, Wolverine linemen, field supervisors, member cooperative linemen, and MECA must coordinate the “where, when, who, and what” for every damaged element. These men and women demonstrated grit, character, safety, and work ethic, with linemen and supervisors working nearly a week of 16 hour days.

This storm was one of the worst on record, with Cherryland and Great Lakes feeling the brunt of it. I’m really proud of the effort and safety of Wolverine personnel. Great job to our crews following a difficult storm.