Northern Michigan is still cleaning up after the historic ice storm that ravaged the region in the last days of March. 

Recovering has been tough, but a Michigan group of storm chasers took it upon themselves to try and lessen the load. The group, called the Michigan Storm Chasers, has been making one heck of a name for itself over the past two years.

“Ryan and I, who was one of the other owners of Michigan Storm Chasers, we had the idea to just, you know, let’s just get live storm chasing in and around Michigan, and from there, it just grew exponentially quickly into what it is today,” said Chandler Bos, vice president of the Michigan Storm Chasers.

It’s a growth that today has led to more than 350,000 followers on Facebook alone.

“Studies have shown that, especially in today’s world, people are less likely to react to severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings when they’re issued by the National Weather Service,” said Caleb Ivins, another chaser with the Michigan Storm Chasers and its content designer. 

“So being able to put eyes on the ground and having that ground confirmation turns an inactive mindset into a reactive mindset. And that’s really the goal. Having people, I guess, relearned how they are taught in terms of reaction time.”

This past weekend, they leveraged that education, reputation and following to start a new arm of their ever-growing group: disaster relief.

“We were like, you know, this is actually turning into something here,” said Bos. “I mean, we’ve forecasted it as well as we could going off of the data we had available, same as everybody else … As we got to daybreak, you know, more and more video comes in that really highlights the extent of the damage that’s going on. We knew we had to do something.”

Tens of thousands of dollars in donations, Amazon packages, and more, from food to fuel to dog food and diapers, were thrown in a couple of U-Hauls and semi-trucks to haul it all.

“We’re impacting the lives of thousands of people directly through everything that we’re able to do,” said Bos. “And it’s just, you know, like, I’m trying very hard to not be emotional about it, but it’s very hard to not be emotional when you think about the difference that that we’re able to make.”

“Seeing that reality, between the damage, the extensive damage that was done and the needs that were needed by the people, it was it was very humbling to be able to drop off these supplies and to give back, to those that needed it,” said Ivins “It was very, very humbling.”