On Monday night, the East Lansing City Council met with various community members who were involved in the management of the ice storm and discussed the actions they took.

“The ice storm caused widespread power outages over the city of East Lansing,” East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas said. “Those power outages, in addition to the cold temperatures, created a situation where city leadership immediately decided to take out and act our emergency operations plan.”

According to Lahanas, the plan included measures such as daily phone conferences and door-to-door welfare checks, as well as typical fire and emergency response services.

The Red Cross also helped residents by setting up warming shelters in the city’s community centers.

Randy Talifarro, fire chief for both Lansing and East Lansing, talked about how fire crews were able to respond to all the requests from people who were without power or had hazards.

“We did not have any fires or medical responses that went unattended,” Talifarro said. “The immediate needs and the emergency needs of our citizens were attended too.”

Along with the work from the fire department, East Lansing police also were out on the streets doing their part to help manage the situation.

“Beginning on the night of Dec. 23rd, we began checking areas within the city to see who had power and who did not,” East Lansing Police Chief Juli Liebler said. “I can report every night there were at least one or two crews working in our community.”

According to Lahanas, virtually all debris was cleared from streets and regular operations of salting and plowing occurred as needed to maintain acceptable travel conditions.