Powerless in the Cold: A Northern Michigan Woman’s Struggle
I am talking to a woman in Cheboygan
Nicole Rhinehart moved to Cheboygan, Michigan during the pandemic, craving peace. Now, she's in survival mode. After an ice storm tore through the region, Nicole and her family lost power—days later, they’re still in the dark.
With downed lines just blocks away, a small generator is keeping their sump pump and space heater running, barely maintaining 58 degrees inside their home. Her husband waited over five hours for gas.
Frozen pipes are a looming threat. “It looks like snow, but it’s all ice,” she said. The damage is so widespread, entire substations need to be rebuilt before homes can be reconnected. Despite tireless work by local crews, Nicole believes more help should’ve come sooner. “Seventeen degrees at night… it’s dangerous.”
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She’s using battery-powered lights and bracing for more snow and wind. “People downstate don’t understand how bad it really is,” she said. “We're just trying to hang on.”
Tell her to quit bitching and buckle up. People in WNC have not had electricity since Sept. 27th. They are living in tents and motorhomes. It ain't no picnic. I have lived in northern Michigan. Unless you're new to the area, you should have been prepared for this. I have seen Gaylord, Michigan when there was so much snow they could not get it all off the roads and all you could see of the stores were the roofs. Store owners shoveled out their doors and the sidewalk in front of their stores and made little paths from the store through the snow piles to the street. That was January 1970.