If you or your business struggled during the recent storms and power outages, you are not alone.
Listening to a recent Van Buren planning commission meeting, we heard one story of a family losing all their food because their refrigerator being out of power for days in a row and needing a gift from a neighbor to keep food on the table until the next paycheck.
The worst outcome, though, was in Sumpter, where two young children were found dead of asphyxiation with a generator running in a garage after the storm.
We know other businesses and homes struggled, too, some without power for three or more days.
You might have noticed that the July 9 issue of our paper went out later than usual. We distributed it on Thursday, but it’s almost always available on the Wednesday before our official publication date. Not this time.
We had a power outage that lasted at least three days, possibly longer. Our advertising manager, Janet, thinks it went out on Friday night. It was out for sure as of Sunday and we were checking the DTE outage map multiple times a day while we worked from home on Monday and Tuesday. The power didn’t come on in our building until after 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
We really had to scramble on Wednesday to get the pages to the printer, who was wondering what the heck was going on with us!
That was my first full issue as the new managing editor of the Belleville Area Independent, so it’s going to be quite the memory to look back on!
As I mentioned in my first ever “from the editor” column in the Independent last week, I am seeking community input on what we should be reporting on.
Never fear – we’ll keep attending community meetings to report on local government and the school board, but I’d like to highlight new business, youth sports and achievements, nonprofits, and whatever else interests you. Let me know which parts of the Independent you absolutely want to keep and what you might like to see change.
Feel free to stop in the office for a chat, reach out to me by phone at 699-9020, or email me at [email protected].