People in the Roscommon area are cooling off Wednesday night after a power outage in the afternoon, during the hottest part of a very hot day.
The outage happened just after 1 p.m. Wednesday and lasted nearly four hours for some. One resident in Roscommon County says he and his wife were at a pizza place on the south side of Higgins Lake when the power went out. Sara Patti was out delivering papers Wednesday afternoon. She says she noticed a lot of small businesses in town closed early due to the outage.
“Most of the place I’ve been at have power out. Some of them are still open accepting cash,” Patti says.
Gardiner Jewelry in Roscommon was one of the few small businesses in town that stayed open through the outage. Owner, Russ Gardiner, says he was able to stay open because he kept the building cool.
“Well it’s kind of unexpected. We’re in the middle of working and fixing jewelry and doing what jewelers do and the power went out,” Gardiner says. “And it was cooler in here because I changed over all the lighting to LEDs so it saved a lot of heat being generated.”
And for those unable to stay cool at home, many headed to Higgins Lake to cool off. A man says his power was out so he decided to head to the beach.
“Yeah man, there was no power at work. I got cut loos at three o’clock so I thought I got to do something with this day,” the man says.
Even a whole gymnastics team moved practice to the beach after their studio lost power. Coach Crystal Brabant at Sky High Gymnastics Center says they’re trying to make the most of the excessive heat and the lack of power.
“The gym already doesn’t even have air conditioning. So, without fans it would of been deadly in there. And they get great conditioning in the water. We tried running in the water, way harder than what I expected,” Brabant laughs.
Consumers Energy is still investigating the cause of Wednesday’s power outage.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
