The power grid is damaged and the ice isn’t melting. That’s the short answer as to why some Northern Michigan residents have been without power for five days following a devastating ice storm - and could continue to be powerless for several more days.

This is easily the worst ice storm in modern times — in the last 50 years — and you have to go back all the way to 1922 to find something even remotely close,” said Harold Dippman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Gaylord.

Residents of a rural northern Michigan community were isolated by an ice storm, but banded together to help each other with cooking and cleaning up.