Life went on in the wake of the storm that struck the Lansing area as students and businesses went back to work.
Unfortunately, much of the work included extensive cleanup.
The powerful winds destroyed property across the Lansing area Wednesday night and made a stop at the Capital Area Transportation Authority’s headquarters, 4615 Tranter Ave. in Lansing.
Sandy Draggoo, CATA’s executive director, said the bus station’s roof and air conditioning unit took the brunt of the punishment.
“The unit was picked up and dropped off several feet from the building,” she said.
Daily service was not interrupted, Draggoo said.
Many Lansing area residents were still feeling the effects of the storm on Thursday as they sat in the dark waiting for power to be restored. Nearly 10,000 customers of the Lansing Board of Water & Light, 1232 Haco Drive, were without power at the height of the storm, said John Strickler, spokesman for the board.
He said the number of customers by noon Thursday was 700.
“We have two areas that were hit hard,” he said. “The big pockets were around Cedar and Miller Roads, and Jolly Road between Pennsylvania Avenue and Aurelius Road.”
Strickler said the outage was mainly a result of high-speed winds that uprooted trees and collapsed power lines.
He said he expects most of the power to be restored to customers today.
“We are working through the night and should have all but 100 customers with their power back,” he said.
Students living northeast of Harrison and Grand River avenues had their power restored Thursday morning before noon.
Cortney Kosmala, social relations senior, said the power came on in her house on Center Street after 11 a.m. Thursday morning. The storm didn’t do any damage and only disrupted her studying.
“It was a big storm and they have a lot of work to do,” she said. “I just went to the Case Hall lounge to read.”
But Dave Keating, telecommunication senior, said he had many problems with no electricity in his Beal Street home.
“I couldn’t wake up this morning without my alarm clock,” Keating said. “Our refrigerator was out, too.”
