Michigan residents deal with power outages, aftermath of Sunday night's storm

Sunday night’s storm left many residents in Michigan without power and dealing with downed tree limbs along with several inches of snow.

The manager of a family-owned hardware store in Buchanan says Monday was a busy day as folks came in asking for generators and other equipment to get them through the effects of the storm.

“Salt, shovels, tube sand,” said Christie Kuehn, manager of Redbud Hardware, listing what customers were buying. “With the power outages that are going around, they’re looking for generators, kerosene, lantern fuel.”

Kuehn had a steady flow of customers at the store after Sunday night’s storm left almost 1,500 I&M customers without power between Niles and Buchanan alone.

Kuehn commutes from Cassopolis, and says she saw several slide offs on her way to work.

“I did see several cars that were off in ditches,” said Kuehn. “Hopefully they were okay, but I did see quite a few of them that had slid off.”

“There was one girl in a ditch and I stopped to make sure she had called somebody, and she’d called the tow truck,” said Elizabeth Coyne, a resident of Galien, Michigan.

Coyne’s routine trip to Warren Dunes was interrupted by the storm.

“I actually went all the way to the dunes and realized when I got my car down there that, even though I have an all-wheel drive Subaru, the wind was blowing so hard that I basically just turned around and came back,” she said with a laugh.

Despite the struggles that this winter weather presents, it’s nothing new to these longtime residents of Michiana.

“I don’t mind it, but I’m not a skier or anybody that rides as snowmobile type-thing,” said Kuehn. “It’s not really my thing, but for the people who enjoy that, I know the owners of the hardware store here like to ski, so they like to see it when it snows.”

“It’s pretty, the snowflakes are beautiful,” said Coyne. “It’ll make the Christmas music we are already listening to settle in a little better when there’s snow.”

For those dealing with power outages, the estimated time of power restoration for the Three Rivers area is 4 p.m. Tuesday. The remainder of the Michigan service area should be restored by 9 p.m. Tuesday.