Northern Michigan Disaster Recovery

Posted on: April 16, 2025

Maybe I’m not turning on the news enough, but there just doesn’t seem to be much reporting on the ice storms in northern Michigan, or much being said about the magnitude of the damage caused by these massive ice storms.  The ice storms covered twelve counties the weekend of March 28-30, and caused varying degrees of damage and outright devastation in Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Mackinac, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego, and Presque Isle counties. While assistance has been given by many, I am proud to say that Auburn Hills contributed to the recovery efforts through expertise provided by a couple of our staff. 

Fire Chief Adam Massingill was deployed as part of Oakland County Incident Management Team to support Montmorency County.  That team, which included Chief Massingill, operated side-by-side with local officials in an Emergency Operations Center from a courtroom in their county building.  Chief Massingill initially served as the Planning Section Chief but also picked up additional positions to meet the needs of the incident.  On April 11, he moved into the Incident Commander/Team Leader role for the rest of the deployment.  On Tuesday, April 15, the team formally returned incident management responsibilities to local authorities and demobilized. 

Chuck Marsh is the Technical Services Coordinator at the Auburn Hills Police Department.  With a full-time role supporting all the technology of the Auburn Hills PD, Chuck became a valuable asset in northern Michigan as he worked alongside local officials and members of the Oakland County Incident Management Team in the Montmorency County EOC and was assigned to the Planning Division in the role of Situation Unit Leader. His responsibilities included collecting information from field personnel and volunteers, creating maps and situation reports summarizing the scope of the damage and recovery efforts, and maintaining records of the incident activities and events. Although Chuck has returned to Auburn Hills after spending a few days in northern Michigan, his work will assist the local officials in that area to continue with recovery efforts in the days, weeks, and months to come. 

Folks, our fellow Michiganders are hurting. As Chief Massingill noted, he never expected to see such an incredible level of devastation as he witnessed when he arrived in Montmorency County.  If you are so inclined to assist in some way, we encourage you to direct donations to the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan where an Urgent Needs Fund has been activated.  The fund will provide immediate assistance to local nonprofits serving individuals and families facing hardship due to the storm's aftermath. Seven of the counties included in the State of Emergency are part of the foundation’s service area, including Alcona, Alpena, Cheboygan, Crawford, Montmorency, Presque Isle and Oscoda counties.  No amount of donation is too small. 

This is a state declared disaster and is likely to become a federally declared disaster soon.  Please help if you can.

Thomas A. Tanghe, City Manager