Presque Isle Electric & Gas, Great Lakes Energy restore power to local schools, businesses in Northern Michigan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, April 9, 2025

CONTACT: Dana Whyte, Byrum & Fisk Advocacy Communications, [email protected]

Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools students expected to return to class on Thursday, businesses reopen following outages

BOYNE CITY, Mich. and ONAWAY, Mich. – Students at Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools are expected to return to class on Thursday and local businesses are reopening following the unprecedented ice storm in northern Michigan that caused catastrophic damage.

These milestones showcase the progress in restoring power across the region because of diligent work by crews from Great Lakes Energy (GLE) and Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-Op (PIE&G).

Main power lines and core infrastructure were substantially restored Tuesday evening, allowing crews to make additional progress to reach rural, remote and hard-to-reach areas of northern Michigan. Crews are continuing to work until all members are back online.

To ensure residents and crew members stay safe, crews first inspect areas around houses and buildings before restoring power – in some cases, this means moving trees, downed power lines and cleaning up debris. GLE has information about individual estimated restoration timeframes available on member accounts. Members can get that information by logging into their profile.

“With the diligent work of our crews, our network’s core system – which can be compared to the body’s central nervous system – has been rebuilt and we can now work our way outward to more rural and remote areas,” said Shaun Lamp, president & CEO of GLE. “Johannesburg-Lewiston students are expected to return to the classroom tomorrow. That significant step toward normalcy in this region shows the incredible dedication and grit of our crews who are taking on the unique challenges to restore power to families across northern Michigan.”

GLE restoration progress as of Wednesday, April 9:

• 90% of GLE members now have power (2,554 members restored on Tuesday)

• replaced more than 1,462 total poles (more than 225 poles replaced on Tuesday)

• replaced an additional 29 transformers

• coordinated more than 1,100 vehicles and equipment

• coordinated 1,208 line workers and more than 250 tree workers in the field to restore power

With PIE&G’s core infrastructure now substantially rebuilt, the plan for them is to have all main lines and taps, or branches off the main lines, for each area and substation energized by Monday, April 14.

“This means we plan to have power flowing by every home in our service territory by Monday,” said Allan Berg, PIE&G CEO. “Our teams are doing their due diligence to quickly and safely restore power, and we expect to turn the lights back on for many members over the next few days.”

That will just leave individual outages caused by damaged service drops, the drop between the main line and the home, left to restore. PIE&G has a system in place to send crews back to make those repairs as quickly as possible, so members with service drop damage are encouraged to contact the office or report the outage in their SmartHub account so they can be added to that phase of restoration.

PIE&G restoration progress as of Wednesday, April 9:

• 70% of PIE&G members now have power (1,459 members restored on Tuesday)

• restored power to four Michigan State Police towers that are critical to operations

• restored power to WHAK-FM communication tower in Alpena

• replaced 1,002 broken poles (158 poles replaced Tuesday)

• restored 1,053 miles of line (118 miles restored Tuesday)

• coordinated 360 crews and 1,293 personnel in the field to restore power

Visit gtlakes.com/power-outages and pieg.com/spring-2025-storm-updates for updates.

Outside of Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools on Wednesday.

Outside of Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools on Wednesday

Outside of Johannesburg-Lewiston Area Schools on Wednesday.