JACKSON, Mich. (WLNS) — Being without electricity and heat is hard enough but imagine not being get to or from your house.
That’s the situation dozens of families in Jackson are facing after this week’s wind storm.
When high winds brought down a large tree Wednesday morning on Ingham Street, it knocked out power and locked in several families.
“My daughter called me, she was frantic. She told me that the tree had fallen and it was catching fire,” said Ebony Pearson.
Two days later, the fire is out but the tree remains.
Pearson’s family and others who live on Ingham Street now have to find their way around the mess.
“A lot of construction cars come this way, people work over here, so it’s messing up the traffic over here,” Pearson said.
As of Friday afternoon, three streets and one alley were closed in the city of Jackson because of downed trees and wires.
The city says crews have been working non-stop to clear trees.
But they can’t open the closed streets until Consumers Energy deals with the wires.
Consumers says their workers are busy restoring power to thousands of customers and they’ll get to the streets when they can.
“We’re very cautious, and we’re taking our time to be very diligent to make sure that any downed wires are being taken care of by the professionals, like our Consumers Energy crews,” said Mary Palkovich, Consumers Energy Vice President of Energy Delivery.
These families are also getting by without any electricity or heat.
They’re hoping freedom from this prison of branches and wires can come soon.
“It’s a wakeup call for a lot of people. But it’s not something that happened on purpose. It’s Mother Nature,” Pearson said.
Consumers Energy says some areas could have to wait through this weekend to get attention.
Officials say they know this is frustrating and they thank people for their patience.