LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan House committee on Wednesday advanced a bill that would push about $75 million toward a relief fund for northern Michigan to address the effects of the area's historic ice storm in late March.

The $75 million appropriation for the Michigan State Police would be used to assist "individual residents, businesses, and communities that have realized a significant financial hardship caused by recent storm damage," according to a nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency analysis of the bill.

The money also would be used as a 25% match to draw down a $225 million federal hazard mitigation grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency if a federal disaster is declared in Michigan. Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked President Donald Trump to issue a presidential emergency declaration for 12 northern Michigan counties and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians affected by the storms that knocked out power for tens of thousands of residents.

FEMA's hazard mitigation money typically is used, according to the federal agency, to support "sustained measures enacted to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards and their effects."

Northern Michigan communities are "doing everything they can" to recover from the storm, but it is apparent more federal help is needed, said state Rep. Parker Fairbairn, a Harbor Springs Republican who introduced the bill.

"After a once-in-a-generation storm, we need a lot more than calloused hands and work boots to get things back to normal," Fairbairn said in a statement. "We’re talking about Michiganders who have dutifully paid their taxes for generations; the least the state can do is return some of those dollars in our hour of need.”

Whitmer declared a state of emergency in northern Michigan on March 31. She deployed the Michigan National Guard to aid in recovery efforts and declared an energy emergency in the Upper Peninsula to aid in the delivery of fuel and other resources. On Friday, she requested Trump to declare a presidential emergency declaration.

In the governor's letter to Trump last week, Whitmer said electric utility cooperatives have estimated their response costs related to the storm will exceed $65 million; that sum does not include municipal or private utilities that are not eligible for federal aid. The state's costs are estimated to be more than $7 million, and local and tribal government costs have not yet been calculated.

The actual costs, when the damage to local infrastructure, businesses and residents is taken into account, are expected to be much higher than the $72 million already accounted for in utility and state expenses.

Several socioeconomic factors for the area — such as an elderly population, higher poverty rates and unemployment — are likely to make an efficient recovery difficult without some aid, Whitmer wrote.

The state is expected to begin a formal joint preliminary damage assessment next week of Northern Michigan with FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration to determine whether damage meets the threshold needed for a major disaster declaration and the individual and public assistance available through that declaration.

As of Wednesday, at least 2,200 residents were still without power, according to data from Presque Isle Electric & Gas, one of the hardest hit utilities during the outage. Another 317 customers lacked electricity, according to the Great Lakes Energy Electric Cooperative. And more than 150 customers are without power in the eastern Upper Peninsula, according to the Cloverland Electric Cooperative.

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