The Glen Lake Association will sponsor a panel discussion and Q&A to help people throughout the region whose property was affected by the Aug. 2 storm. The free discussion is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 29, at the Glen Arbor Township Hall.
Citizens Reminded Not to Place Private Property Debris in Right-of-Way From staff reports With cleanup efforts continuing in hard-hit Leelanau County, the Office of Emergency Management/9-1-1 is reminding citizens not to place fallen tree debris on road shoulders for pickup. Fallen tree debris on private property is the responsibility of homeowners and not the Leelanau […]
As I listened to the rustle of the trees, I could feel that the air was unsettled, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. There weren’t any bird noises — which is unusual as normally the morning noises include the chirps of the finches, cardinals and an occasional screech of a passing heron or an obnoxious blue jay. This humid morning, however, there was only sound of the rustle of leaves coming from the on shore breeze as it swirled through the trees and out across the bay. I didn’t know what it was, but I sensed things were off. Little did I anticipate it being the wild storms our shores were about to weather.
When Donna Burgan decided to invite friends and community members to commemorate the opening of her store Wildflowers in 1980, she had no idea that people would be celebrating the return of electricity more than the store’s birthday. What was planned as a 35th anniversary became instead a “resilience party,” honoring the spirit of Glen Arbor and all those who came through the storm.
Gov. Rick Snyder today directed the Michigan State Police to amend a recent disaster declaration for Grand Traverse County to include Leelanau County after severe thunderstorms caused widespread damage in both counties on Aug. 2.
The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is now open from Glen Haven to Glen Arbor, the National Park reports. The DH Day Campground will reopen on Sunday, Aug. 16. Both areas have been closed since a severe storm on Sunday, Aug. 2 caused downed power lines and extensive tree damage.
After the shock of entering the dense-leaved maple canopy sheared to the ground and shouldered aside like the dead dropped in their tracks, after all that what I finally see are breaking points. The storm’s catastrophe bars comprehension except in stages, but every moment our eyes are open it becomes more real: massive trunks stacked like proverbial pick up sticks — all cliché but what else do I have in the first moments of first seeing? But this is no game. Still, I am so stunned I have no fresh language to describe this — it’s all too dense, thick with damage. The heart aches and the mind can’t find the way to the words, or even the real. When do I see the breaking points? The crack and twist, wood’s open wounds, the new right angle that is all wrong for the verticality of a tree. Not until the end.
“Where were you when . . .?” None of us will ever forget, and so now we will always trade our stories of this shared local tragedy. Waiting for Kelly McAllister to make me a malted, I gazed through the windows of McCahill’s Crossing Dairy Bar at the Glen Lake Narrows to see the eerie white cloud front race at terrific speed eastward across Little Glen Lake. Instantly the air was a greenish blue-black chaos of horizontal hail, thick rain, and leaves. Heedless of the danger, we gawked out the big windows at plunging power lines, frantic trees, and the growing line of cars refusing to cross the narrows and the bridge they couldn’t see because the lake was airborne. When the lights went out for good Kelly calmly called Consumers on her cell. We only had to inch around one tree as we drove homeward on Benzonia Trail minutes later. Countless others were not so lucky, and their stories have been our daily bread for a frantically memorable, strange, and communal cleanup of a week.
During one extraordinary week in August 2015, the sounds that dominated our town were the whirr of winds and the ugly crack of trees, followed by the buzz of chainsaws, the hum of generators, and the cheering and car honking as Consumers Power trucks and linemen rolled into town like a liberating army.
Townspeople are ebullient as they embark on an unfathomable cleanup task. Landowners with five, 10, 20 or more trees to remove are looking at a cost of thousands of dollars; in many cases, tens of thousands. Most insurance companies cover only a small portion — if any — of tree and brush removal that is not threatening insured structures or blocking roads.