Northeast and North Central Nebraska power companies were busy Monday and Tuesday repairing downed lines and addressing outages caused by strong winds, ice and snow that came with an early-spring storm.
Jennifer Adams, communications manager at Elkhorn Rural Public Power District in Battle Creek, said customers in Pierce County and rural Madison County were dealing with outages starting around 8 a.m. Monday.
Power was briefly restored, she said, but went out again as a result of the storm system. Crews were sent home around 9 p.m. Monday.
Most outages were caused by galloping lines, which occur when the wind is blowing hard enough that adjacent power lines begin to swing and hit each other. Ice can build up on the lines, which increases the likelihood of the power lines being compromised.
“Either they can break the poles, it can break the line, it can slap the lines together causing … blinks,” Adams said. “It's really hard on the grid.”
Elkhorn Rural Public Power customers affected the most were residents in southern Pierce County, Tilden and Newman Grove, she said.
“But we are out there working on the lines, making sure that everything is in place so that when we can re-energize everything, we'll be back on,” Adams said, noting that wind and ice conditions had affected the district’s ability to restore power.
Mandy Backer, a controller at the Northeast Power District, said it is handling at least two outages in Wayne and Pierce counties. She said those began around 7:30 a.m. Monday.
“Yesterday we really weren't able to get people on. We kind of got them on and then they went out again,” Backer said.
Gusty winds and ice also caused those outages.
Neither power company had an estimated time of restoration on Tuesday morning but believed its luck would turn once wind speeds went down.
According to the Pierce Fire and Rescue Facebook page, Elkhorn Rural Public Power crews were out at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday with mutual aid from Cuming County working to restore power to Pierce County residents.
Three substations were out as of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday because of transmission-related issues. Conditions as of late morning Tuesday did not allow for the re-energizing of the transmission line, and doing so could cause more damage and result in longer outages.
Crews continued to work on rerouting portions of affected areas, and transmission lines would be energized once wind speeds began to decrease, according to the Facebook page.
Grant Otten, media relations specialist for NPPD, said 383 customers lost power in Tilden around 1:45 a.m. Tuesday after a vehicle struck a power pole. All of those customers had their power restored by 4:53 a.m., he said.
Rain that froze on blacktop roads Monday created hazardous travel conditions for drivers in the area, especially on county roads.
A portion of 833rd Road northwest of Madison was closed on Monday because of a semi that was partially blocking the road and wouldn’t be removed until Tuesday.
Madison County Sheriff Todd Volk said 833rd Road (Enola Road) between 550th Avenue and 551st Avenue was closed because there was a semi tractor with a trailer that mostly left the roadway because of slick roads but was still blocking some of the traffic lane.
Besides the semi accident, Volk said there were a few other vehicles that slid into ditches because of slick roads, but none of the accidents resulted in major damage or injuries.
Volk said Enola Road and other blacktops in the county were slick on Monday and still could be compromised on Tuesday. He asked motorists to use caution.
Norfolk Police Capt. Chad Reiman said Norfolk officers responded to a minor weather-related accident on Monday at Second Street and Norfolk Avenue. A driver was unable to brake because of slick roads and rear-ended another vehicle, Reiman said.
Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger said multiple vehicles slid off Highway 35 on Monday evening, but there were no major accidents in the county. Around 4 p.m. Monday, deputies briefly blocked off part of Highway 275 while power companies fixed a downed line.
Multiple power lines also went down north of the courthouse in Stanton, Unger said.
Pierce County Sheriff Rick Eberhardt said his office did not respond to any accidents caused by slick roads Monday or early Tuesday.
Wind speeds in and around Norfolk were forecast to blow in excess of 20 mph through 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Wednesday’s forecast in Norfolk is partly cloudy with highs in the upper 30s and a minimal chance of precipitation.
