Northern Michigan continues to recover from the generational ice storm in March of 2025. In an attempt to cut costs, FEMA reimbursed part, but not all, of Michigan’s emergency request. The White House approved repairing roads and bridges, public buildings, and parks. But in a surprising move, they denied funding to reimburse our utilities. As you may remember, we had an enormous number of downed lines and polls, and our line workers did Herculean work to restore power to large chunks of the state. The Governor appealed this decision, which the bipartisan federal delegation supported. But in October, the Administration denied the appeal. And this is the result. We all understand cost-cutting, but shorting communities that have gone through one-in-a-generation natural disasters isn’t the place to look.