As Michiganders continue to deal with the aftermath of a catastrophic ice storm, one Up North power co-op CEO is comparing it to the infamous Blizzard of 1978. From Friday to Sunday, heavy and long-lasting freezing rain and a line of severe storms struck the northern Lower Peninsula.

State-managed trails in 12 northern Michigan counties are indefinitely closed due to damage from severe ice storms that hit the region this week.

This is easily the worst ice storm in modern times — in the last 50 years — and you have to go back all the way to 1922 to find something even remotely close,” said Harold Dippman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Gaylord.