ICE RINK

[Davey Crockett]

This was posted Dec. 27th.

MANAGER'S STORM UPDATE:
Not a lot of good news, I think the big point to that is we are still losing poles and wires.
We have all our crews out working to restore power, but the ice is heavy on the MDU, Otter Tail Power, and WAPA transmission lines, too - so we currently are not getting power over their transmission lines to our Fredonia, Gackle, Dickey, Omega, LaMoure and Jud substations. They have crews working to repair these transmission lines.
We have conscripted the Service Corp electricians and plumbers to run out lines, but the gravel roads are really slick so it’s slow going.
We have about 300 poles down (200 confirmed, but we haven’t seen the whole system yet and line is still going down)– and tons and tons of wire breaks
I’m estimating about a third of what we put up yesterday is down again, along with new outages – and there are several areas we haven’t been able to survey yet in the Gackle and Ellendale areas.
We are having a lot of tree issues. Not just that the trees knock out the line, but from a safety perspective, as trees are going down around the guys as they are pulling the conductor out of the snow & ice.
We have three crews from Legacy Power Line Contractors here (since yesterday morning) and today more crews coming from Lake Region (our Minnesota neighbor to the east), Verendrye (Velva), North Central (Bottineau), Cavalier (Langdon), McLean (Garrison) and Northern Plains Electric Cooperative (Carrington & Cando)
Our biggest challenge is just getting enough information to direct the crews – so we can get the most folks back on on in the shortest amount of time.
This is going to be a long one, I'm afraid we won't have everyone on until next week
Hopefully I’ll have better news later today!
Mark Kinzler

 

[Traxion]

We sent four loads of poles that way yesterday with four more going this morning.

 

[Davey Crockett]

We came home from Fargo on Wed morning and saw a few accident scenes from the day before. a couple of them looked pretty bad. A Walmart semi in the ditch and tipped on it's side west of Grand Forks.

 

[Phill Latio]

Dakota Valley out of Edgeley said they've confirmed 1000 poles down and counting. Ive been out of power since tuesday night. A few years ago I had an electrician wire a generator hook up into my panel. I honestly thought i'd never need it but now couldn't be more thankful I have it.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Looks like the ice should melt next Sunday.

 

[WormWiggler]

at some point wouldn't burying those lines have merit?

 

[Sluggo]

My brother has been without power since Tuesday too. Cattle don’t respect non-electrified wires apparently.

 

[Traxion]

at some point wouldn't burying those lines have merit?

Something like 5x the cost to bury is what I’ve heard. That’s the reason they always give.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

at some point wouldn't burying those lines have merit?

Depends when there is a problem underground do you want it fixed in days or multiple weeks. I know when things like this happens it takes lots of time and resources but underground can pose its own set of issues especially as you get into the larger lines. Not to mention the cost of insulating the wires correctly and installing them deep enough to avoid damage from above but not too deep so they can be serviceable. Point being they can see the damage and respond, underground not so much.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Something like 5x the cost to bury is what I’ve heard. That’s the reason they always give.

5x plus depending on line. We all complain about electricity bill being higher than we want, imagine what it could be