National Lineman Appreciation Day had an extra special meaning this year

TRAVERSE CITY — National Lineman Appreciation Day had extra special meaning this year in Northern Michigan following last month’s ice storm.

Linemen work long days and long nights in some of the worst weather conditions imaginable. And thousands, including Eric Leach, have been working hours on end to restore power across northern Michigan following the March ice storm.

“One of the best parts of the job is you do see that side of people,” Leach said. “I’ve got a whole pile of thank-you letters. Cards from people who have written in, the schools. All the students in the schools have written in and drawn pictures of line workers working on the lines — It’s been awesome.”

Eric has been a lineman for 30 years. He says this ice storm caused the worst damage he’s ever seen in northern Michigan, and restoring power has not been easy in places.

“When you’re working on the high voltage lines, every single move you have that you make has to be thought out in advance. I mean, you have to plan your work that you’re going to do, and you have to follow that plan to a tee, because if you don’t, somebody is going to get injured or hurt.”

Eric and his fellow northern Michigan linemen got a helping hand from line crews across the country, showing just how big the lineman family truly is.

“Those first couple days, especially when we transitioned over from the rain and the ice it got cold again and then snowed. We had some crews that were from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

All the way from New York to Texas to Arizona. We had a little over 900 linemen helping, which is an incredible amount of linemen for this area. And it literally took that many people to make this happen, even though we’re over the 20-day mark.”

Now, they’re focused on finishing the job they started nearly three weeks ago.

“People just have to realize the sheer amount of manpower it goes into restoring a system like this that’s been totally devastated…. Without that help, you know, we wouldn’t be able to do this, and we really owe an amount of gratitude to them for being away from their homes.”