1 of Michigan's worst ice storms ever hit in 1976
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Ice in Michigan is expected, but ice storms are relatively rare.
The last couple, before the Wednesday storm that ravaged the state, were in 2020 and 2013, when Saginaw and the Thumb faced power outages by the hundreds of thousands, just like now.
One of Michigan's worst ice storms ever, National Weather Service meteorologists say, was in 1976, with the then-DTE President John Hamann calling it a disaster, Gov. William Milliken declaring a state of emergency in three especially hard-hit areas of the state, and utility crews struggling to repair lines.
In 1976, trees were covered with ice so thick — up to 3 inches by some accounts — they were uprooted.
Wednesday's winter ice storm was in effect until 4 a.m. Thursday for most of southeast Michigan, along with St. Clair, Lenawee, Allegan, Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Calhoun, Jackson, Van Buren and Kalamazoo counties.
And one of the Free Press headlines from 1976 read: "Life in the New Ice Age: No Light, No Heat, No Fun."
The front-page story from the March 4, 1976, paper, described how Michiganders sought refuge in motels, read by candlelight and called the former Eastland Shopping Center in Harper Woods, which was still new, to ask: "Is it warm there?"
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Detroit Edison "linemen" — the report said, because there apparently were no women on the work crews — worked 19 hours straight to reattach downed electric wires, took eight hours off to sleep, and immediately returned to work.
Fur-clad Birmingham women went shopping for fake fireplace logs, the report said.
The ice storm, the report said, turned folks into pioneers, seeking warmth beneath sweaters, coats, and blankets.
They sang songs, made coffee on camp stoves, and ate "a lot of cold ham."
"We went to bed early last night," the Free Press quoted Carole Israel, of West Bloomfield, who said something quite similar to what many Michigan residents said Thursday. "There was nothing else to do but get into bed and hope that by morning we would have light. We woke up and we didn't."
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan ice storm in 1976 was one of state's worst
