BLISSFIELD, Mich. — Consumers Energy told WTOL 11 that last week's ice storm was probably in the top three when it comes to damage and impact, but businesses that kept power in the village of Blissfield in Lenawee County were still able to help others.
The company said Lenawee and Hillsdale counties got it the worst, with more than 250 crews assigned to work on the electric lines there and 45 crews working on tree removal.
The aftermath of the storms that took over parts of Michigan could still largely be seen at places like Ellis Park in Blissfield, which was still flooded with water.
Owners of Blissfield Market and Sports Pizza, Johnny Sarkis and Nicole Zielinski, wanted to help ever since they first got word of the power going out and were helped by the Blissfield Township Fire Department and Steel Addictions in Toledo.
The groups posted on social media and offered free pizza to residents in Blissfield who lost power and to first responders.
"We gave away like 193 pizzas that day. We went out the door at 6 p.m.," Sarkis said. "People who came here after 6 p.m., we gave them a free ticket they can use to claim a pizza on the second day."
Emmy Bagnato with Emmy's Kitchen helped the community too when the storm hit, and she said it had an adverse effect with people filling up their bakery to warm up.
"We didn't expect to really see anybody that day and then people were flooding in," Bagnato said.
They also helped support other businesses among just residents.
"Since we did have power, we had a few businesses bring their frozen goods over, bring some of their refrigerated goods over and we were able to help them out," she said.
Consumers Energy said its crews are working on getting those hardest-hit parts of southern Michigan repaired and heading to northern Michigan to take on the aftermath of Monday's storm.
Consumers Energy is also offering its customers rebates if they lost power, with more information on its website on how to apply for the outage credit.