Wednesday morning, 27-year-old Brooke, an employee at Dunham’s Sports on Michigan Avenue in Lansing, Michigan, made her daily commute to work from her home in Corunna, Michigan. Her drive was anything but typical.
“My 40-minute drive took an hour and a half. Twice as long as usual,” said Brooke. “I had to drive 35 to 40 mph the whole way.”
Brooke said she saw only two snowplows on her way to work, and the plow in the parking lot didn’t get there until 10 a.m. Outside, a yellow Komatsu loader cleared snow next door at the Secretary of State’s office and a man shoveled the sidewalks. The rest of the parking lot was covered in about 3 inches of snow.
Brooke said that, in anticipation of the snowstorm, Dunham’s received more calls than normal about whether they had snow boots and winter coats in stock. She also said a few people came in this morning to buy snow brushes for their cars.
Kristina Garbiec, who works at the Kroger’s in Frandor Mall just down the street from Dunham’s, said people rushed to grocery stores to stock up for the storm, buying necessities such as bottled water, chicken and toilet paper.
“I made the mistake of going to Meijer at five when everyone was getting out of work. I was planning on making chicken for dinner, but they were totally out,” said the mother of three, throwing up her hands. “It was a mess.”
The assistant customer service manager at Kroger’s, Jen Bailey, said shoppers surged into the grocery store at 10:30 a.m. to load up their carts. She said when the second wave of shoppers came at 5 p.m., the store was cleared out.
Bailey said she worked the grocery pickup on Tuesday but had to cancel many of the orders.
“I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do. We just didn’t have the items they ordered. Not even any substitutions,” said the 36-year-old.
Bailey and Garbiec both said the people in Lansing are preparing for the worst, yet it seems snow removal services don’t share the same sentiment.
“The snowplows suck in Lansing,” said Garbiec.
“If they’re out there, I haven’t seen them,” said Bailey, gesturing to Michigan Avenue.
Bailey said she hopes people drive slowly and stay safe on the roads because the snowfall is forecast to continue until early Thursday morning.