Rural Electric Customers Coming Back On Line
The 2019 winter-spring snow storm will be one for the record books. Devastating dams, rivers, livestock and infrastructure. Across the region about 100,000 rural electric customers were in the dark and cold. Some still continue go without power.
According to Xcel Energy, crews have restored power to nearly all of the 100,000 customers who lost power due to severe winter weather that swept through the Upper Midwest las week. This 98 percent restoration effort in 72 hours is due to the 900 employees, contractors and mutual aid partners working to turn the lights on for our customers.
The majority of the 900 customers currently without power are in southwest Minnesota, an area with the most severe damage from the storm.
Snow, rain, ice, and damaging winds snapped more than 650 power poles and downed hundreds of power lines in the Upper Midwest. Crews have worked day and night to repair and rebuild the infrastructure needed to restore service to customers. Severe weather and closed roads made the restoration work challenging, so we appreciate customers’ patience and support of our crews.
Restoring power after a major storm is a challenging and complex situation.
Top priority is given to situations that threaten public safety, such as live, downed wires. We also prioritize our efforts to help the most people possible, as quickly as possible. The damage from this storm was so extensive; we needed to rebuild portions of our power grid knocked down by the prolonged storm.