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Kalamazoo residents cleaning up after trees fall during ice storm

Marcus Hamilton and Stephanie Lukins had a tree fall onto their home, smashing a hole in their roof.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — In Kalamazoo, power crews have been working all day on Thursday to restore power to the thousands still without it, thanks in part to ice-covered trees falling onto power lines.

Fortunately for Joe Kutchera and his daughter Dani, their house kept its power despite a close call with a couple trees.

“Along our driveway here, one of the big branches fell," says Kutchera. "And then across the street, a big oak across the street, two branches fell down blocking the street.”

The rest of the day was spent cutting up the tree limbs that fell into the yard or blocked the road.

“This morning we were out here at 7:30 when our neighbor was trying to get through," says Kutchera.

Fallen trees are not unheard of in this part of town.

“Whenever there’s significant wind storms, there was one last year, similar thing, some large trees fell down," says Kutchera.

On Kingston Avenue, Marcus Hamilton and Stephanie Lukins weren’t as fortunate with close calls.

Just after midnight, they heard a crash.

“It sounded like a cannon going off," says Hamilton. “I thought it fell next to the house. so I kind of wanted to go back to bed.”

But when they went into the living room, they found a hole in their ceiling.

“Stephanie got up right away, opened the door and we both kind of jumped up, just a lot of adrenaline," says Hamilton.

The two have a place to stay while they figure out what to do next. But most importantly to Marcus, no one was hurt.

Power crews will continue to be hard at work in the area, as power in some places may be out until the weekend or later.

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