July storms keep Cedar-Knox PPD crews hopping

WAUSA – Cedar-Knox Public Power District crews have had to keep energized as they have worked to help northeast Nebraska recover from storms that swept through the area on July 10 and 12.

Mike Lammers, the general manager of the Hartington-based public power district, noted the July 10 storm was more severe and caused more damage in Wausa than the one two days later.

“Our dispatchers sent all crews available to Wausa almost immediately following the reports of heavy tree damage throughout the town,” he said of the July 10 storm that blew through the area starting at about 4:45 p.m.

“We had several wires down on the main lines, with the majority of destruction on the secondary service drop side to houses,” he said. “We also had security light wires and other minor damage to equipment, which appeared to all be from wind and tree damage.”

Cedar-Knox was notified of a power outage north of Wausa at about 4:30 p.m. July 10 and then started to receive reports of no electricity from within Wausa shortly after 5 p.m.

“We discovered we had approximately 85 percent of the city of Wausa out of power once the storm had passed, with outages throughout the entire town,” Lammers said.

“While the substation remained with power, we had many issues on all our circuits,” he said. “With safety as our main concern with a storm of this magnitude, we felt we need to patrol and look at all services before re-energizing any lines.”

Cedar-Knox had all power restored to customers in the community of Wausa by about 11 p.m. July 10, excluding those who needed an electrician or other assistance to their services before the public power district could safely turn those on as well.

“Cedar-Knox PPD had only a couple other outages on July 10 outside of the city limits of Wausa, but sustained heavy damage with one broken pole to one mile of three-phase distribution line just northwest of Wausa,” Lammers said. “We were fortunate that Wausa was the only area that had lost power on the storm, so we were able to send all resources to assist.”

The public power district’s service area – which covers all of Cedar County, the eastern half of Knox County and small parts of Dixon, Pierce and Wayne counties – was hit with another storm during the hours of 4 to 6 a.m.

July 12.

“This storm, while not as severe, caused power outages across the entire footprint of the district – the loss of four poles due to wind and small tree devastation as the primary culprit to lines and equipment,” Lammers said.

“This storm began at about 5 a.m., with outages totaling about 1,100 customers without service at one time or another,” he said. “Crews were able to restore all power by noon.”

Cedar-Knox expected repairs to all power lines and equipment to be completed during the next week to two weeks.

“CKPPD would like to thank the city and all those that assisted in removing debris so our crews could safely do our repairs during this time,” Lammers said of the public power district’s crews working in Wausa.

He also expressed gratitude to Smokin’ Chip’s Cafe & BBQ and Pinky’s Lounge – which are both owned by Chris and Kelly Ferdig – in downtown Wausa for feeding Cedar-Knox’s crews following the July 10 storm.

“It is greatly appreciated,” Lammers said. “We also want to thank the customers of Wausa and all customers in our district for your patience and assistance during large storm events.”