The lives and schedules of 3,859 Williamston residents were disrupted as Michigan and the Midwest were hit hard by winter storms during late January and early February.
Snow and extremely cold weather caused the 1,854 Williamston workers to have trouble getting to work, according to Data USA, an analytics website.
Williamston Snow Radar – weather.us
“My vehicle wouldn’t start, and my tractor to plow my driveway wouldn’t start either,” said Jeff Bacon, a Williamston resident of two years, who works at an auto parts store and said the weather caused a lot of people’s batteries to die. “I had to change both batteries, then at work we had dozens of people coming in with dead batteries in their cars. We were really busy, there were a lot more customers per hour.”
Mark Webber, who has been living in Williamston for two years, was unable to go to work and had to take extra care of his horses. Webber, a senior engineer for Pratt & Whitney Dependable Engines, had to take three days off from work and make sure his three horses didn’t get frostbite.
“We have dressage horses, my wife rides and trains the horses, so they have had to stay inside,” said Webber. “I’ve seen horses that can’t last part of the year because of frostbite. We keep blankets on hold when it gets cold. What else can you do?”
The temperature in Williamston dropped to a low of -15 degrees and on top of that had wind speeds of 23 mph.
timeanddate.com
Williamston resident, Shawn Budry, who studies at Lansing Barbering College, was stuck in his hometown of Bay City because of the storm and says the storm pushed his schedule back.
“The storm effected me by not letting me make it to school,” said Budry. “I was stuck in Bay City the whole day so I couldn’t even make it down here to Williamston. Eventually, I made it down here, and the storm just pushed everything back, classes were canceled and I couldn’t work.”
Gail Vanderveen, a pharmacist at D&W Fresh Market, said she had to drive to work everyday from Mason, despite the weather.
“I had to come into work every day, I went straight to work and back out, I didn’t go outside at all otherwise,” said Vanderveen. “Monday was the hardest to get home because the snow started to accumulate. Monday night it was very busy because people knew that the storm was coming.”