The White Lake area continues to pick up the pieces after last Tuesday morning’s storm, which saw wind speeds of 70-90 miles an hour and rendered much of the area’s roads impassable in the early hours of recovery. Many properties remain affected, with 28 homes currently marked as unsafe to occupy, according to White Lake Fire Authority chief Pete McCarthy, but luckily, as far as the city of Whitehall knows, there have been no major injuries reported as a result of the storm - remarkable given the scope of the damage to some homes.
“That’s nothing short of miraculous,” McCarthy said. “There’s a lot of vehicles and belongings that need to be replaced, and a lot of work to be done on homes, but you have to (at least) put that in the win column.”
McCarthy estimated about 80% of the area has returned to mostly normal and hopes to bump that number to 90% in the coming days. The remainder, the families whose homes were most damaged, will likely be dealing with the aftermath for months.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s how much the community has delivered for those in need. McCarthy marveled that of the families displaced by home damage, he only knew of one that had to utilize help from the American Red Cross to find a new place to stay. Everyone else was given shelter by a family member or neighbor. So many people came out to help, McCarthy joked, that it almost became a hindrance as power companies and public agencies also came to the area. Several local businesses, unprompted, offered help to the city or WLFA through free lunches, water, Gatorade or other goodies.
“This is the type of time when a small town like ours really shines,” McCarthy said. “It was heartwarming to see the community come out the way it did.”
Whitehall city manager Scott Huebler said the community handled everything extremely well. There were “some frayed nerves,” he said, understandably so, in the early aftermath, but all told city residents were very accommodating to public agencies.
The storm was the worst Huebler said he can ever remember here. The only analogue McCarthy had was a similar storm in May 1998, when he was in eighth grade, but he said that storm did not cause as much residential damage as this one.
“The last time we had a storm like this, the worst thing for me was not being able to play GoldenEye on Nintendo 64,” McCarthy chuckled. “My responsibilities were a little bigger this time around.”
Huebler said responders from local agencies as well as power companies did “a phenomenal job” getting things closer to normal. By last Wednesday evening, the Colby Street downtown area had regained power, and most area businesses reopened the next day.
Muskegon County made a declaration of a state of emergency late last week. Huebler and McCarthy both said they are hopeful the state will follow suit, which would enable funds to be funneled to the area to help cover potential future budget shortfalls that could result from the extra work that was needed. Huebler said early estimates had the city on the hook for about $300,000 of cleanup expenses; the city’s Department of Public Works has begun brush pickup for those who need it.
“If the governor declares (a state of emergency), it allows the federal government to possibly declare it,” Huebler said. “But talking to representatives from the state police who were on the scene...they’re not overly optimistic. Any assistance would be awesome, but we’re taking the position now that the city of Whitehall has to dig ourselves out of it. That’s not to cast negative shadows on the state or the feds, but if we do get some assistance, that would be awesome.”
McCarthy added despite it feeling “vulgar” to be concerned about money when some families are displaced from their homes, from a practical standpoint it’s a matter that needs to be addressed.
“This is a small community and we have limited budgets,” McCarthy said. “We do the best we can with what we have. I don’t need anyone from the state cutting trees or making action plans...I just need them to cut us a check to fill the gaps this created in our budget that we might have later. After we get back to normal, it would be nice if the state can step up and funnel some funding our way to stave off the potential financial impact of everything.”
The WLFA staff earned praise from McCarthy for their work in the early hours. He said 14 firefighters responded last Tuesday to help, with many of them calling in at their day jobs and delivering aid even as they themselves were without power.
“I can’t thank my staff enough for stepping up,” McCarthy said.
