NOTE: In addition to the News Releases listed below, DS&O Rural Electric Cooperative at Solomon and Butler Rural Electric Cooperative at El Dorado have storm reports on their web sites. These can be accessed by going to www.dsoelectric.com and www.butler.coop .
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 20, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Crews restoring power to members of Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative, inc. report that all residential customers should be back with electric service tonight, Thursday, December 20. Any customer still without residential service tomorrow December 21, please call our office at 800 530 5572 or 785 472 4021 to report the outage.
Crews that can remain will spend tomorrow and Saturday restoring power to water wells and oil wells, however, all of those may not have power restored prior to Christmas. The cooperative is planning on letting crews spend Christmas with their families.
We at Rolling Hills wish to express our appreciation to all of the members that helped us out during this disaster. Members reported problems, pulled us through mud holes, delivered cookies to workers, brought us fruit and gave us encouragement. “Reducing our outage numbers from over 4,000 system wide down to 0 in 10 days is a tremendous task,” said Dale Weinhold, Director of Member Service. “It certainly could not of been done without everyone’s cooperation. I know there were difficult times, especially for those on the longer isolated lines that had to wait until last, but for the most part our members were very understanding. We certainly appreciate all of them.”
Rolling Hills Electric serves 10,000 meters in 16 North Central Kansas Counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 19, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Crews assisting with the power restoration at Rolling Hills Electric in the Ellsworth, Lincoln and Russell County areas report service restored to all residential customers except 10. However, to restore power to these 10 customers require the rebuilding of 3 ½ miles of 3 phase line and ½ mile of single phase line. Service is still expected to be restored to these customers by Friday night. “This is our best estimate,” said Director Member Service Dale Weinhold. However, we stress that if you are still out of service after 8 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday December 20, please call our office at 785 472 4021 or 800 530 5572 to report your outage. We may not know you are off.
With service restored to all residential customers, crews will begin the process of restoring power to around 250 water and oil field services. “If you need power for your cattle, we will restore those first, Weinhold said. “The residential services obviously were our priority, but we intend to get the rest rebuilt as soon as possible. However, we would like to see everyone on for Christmas.”
Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative serves 10,000 meters in 16 North Central Kansas Counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 18, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Crews restoring power for Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative made very little progress today. Melting snow made roads nearly impassable. Line trucks were mired in the mud and had to be pulled from pole to pole, making the job much tougher and considerably slower. We are currently estimating 200 residential customers still without power. Although some crews have to move on to other jobs tomorrow, crews from other areas will be coming in. We still estimate that all residential customers will have their power restored by Friday December 21, however, it is dependant on the weather.
Rolling Hills Electric again reminds those without power to please call our office after 8 a.m. tomorrow to report their outage.
Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative is a distribution cooperative serving 10,000 meters in 16 North Central Counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative
Horton, KS
For Immediate Release -- December 18, 2007
Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative Continues Restoration Efforts
“I’ve never seen any damage like what we are now seeing here,” said Rod Gerdes, general manager of Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative. “It seems like we’ve just about lost everything throughout the system.”
Brown-Atchison was one of 23 electric cooperatives that were damaged following last week’s ice storm. Layers of ice coated trees, power lines, and utility poles, causing more than 50,000 outages to cooperative members across the state. Brown-Atchison was one of the hardest hit, losing service to all of its members. For the first couple of days of the storm, none of Brown-Atchison’s members had power because their power supplier was also damaged from the same storm system.
“From the time the storm hit, all 10 of our delivery points were off,” Gerdes said. “We didn’t have anyone on our system with power.”
When power began to be restored to the cooperative’s service area this week, one of the first metering points to receive power was the Willis substation on Dec. 13. This substation serves the central part of the cooperative’s service area, including the Kickapoo Reservation – one of the first locations to receive power. The Nortonville metering point also received power around the same time, and restoration efforts continue.
“At this point, we are still working to restore more than 80% of our service area,” Gerdes explained. “Sometimes you can be fortunate enough where a storm will only hit only part of our system, but with this storm the devastation is pretty complete.”
To assist them in their rebuilding efforts, the electric cooperative has brought in 160 linemen from private contractors and electric cooperatives from six other states to assist the restoration efforts.
“We have brought in a lot of help,” Gerdes stated. “For a cooperative that serves 3,200 meters, that amount of help is just fantastic. Logistically, we have as many people in our area that our local restaurants and hotels can support.”
The line crews are facing challenges with fallen limbs, snapped power lines, more than 1,100 downed utility poles, and extremely muddy roads.
“Right now the warmer weather is more of a hindrance than a help because of the muddy conditions. We have brought in tractors and bulldozers to pull our trucks and equipment to the damaged service area,” Gerdes said. “We have also had wonderful help from the local farmers and other members. Some people have been out helping pull our trucks through the mud, working in the warehouse to frame cross arms, and bringing food to our line crews and office staff.”
Gerdes stated that the line crews continue their work, and that they hope to have most of their members’ services restored within a week.
“Some of the most rural areas could be up to two weeks due to the amount of the devastation,” Gerdes said.
Brown-Atchison Electric Co-operative Association, Inc., is a member-owned rural electric cooperative, headquartered in Horton, that provides electric service to approximately 3,200 consumers in Northeast Kansas.
For photos and more information about the storm restoration efforts across the state, go to the Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. website at www.kec.org.
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 17, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. is continuing the power restoration process with 85 linemen and numerous trucks scattered throughout Ellsworth and Lincoln and Russell Counties. An estimated 250 residential customers remain without service with the majority of those in Ellsworth County. Although crews have made good progress, the customers that remain off are in the hardest hit area of Ellsworth County and require pole replacement before power can be restored. In some areas, there are as many as two miles of poles in a row are down. Cooperative staff is still estimating restoration to be complete by Friday, December 21.
Customers that remain off after 8 a.m. Tuesday December 18, should call 785 472 4021 or 800 530 5572 and report their outage. “We ask that you call us again even if you have called in before, said Dale Weinhold, Director Member Service. Sometimes we think customers came on and for some reason they didn’t. Your call is the only way we know for sure.”
Power has been restored to all residential customers in Smith, Osborne, Mitchell, Jewell, Republic and Cloud counties.
Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative Inc. serves electric power to 16 North Central Counties and has offices in Belleville, Mankato and Ellsworth.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Bluestem Electric Cooperative
Wamego, Kansas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2007
Contact: Ken Maginley, (785) 456-2212
Extended Outages Expected for Rural Residents of Leonardville, Riley, and Olsburg
Line crews from Bluestem Electric Cooperative have been joined by nearly 100 linemen from across Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota to restore service, but some areas are expected to be out of power for more than a week.
After the Dec. 10th ice storm, more than 4,400 of Bluestem’s 6,800 members were without electricity. By Dec. 15, power had been restored to more than half of those members who were affected. However, due to the severe damage caused by miles of downed power lines and more than 650 broken utility poles, Bluestem is now predicting that the rural residents around the Leonardville, Riley, and Olsburg communities will be without power for longer than seven days. A more definite restoration time will be determined later.
Key staff from the electric cooperative met with two groups of cooperative members on Dec. 13 and 14 to discuss the extended outage. The cooperative recruited volunteers to hand-deliver letters to those without power. The letters explained what part of the cooperative’s system received the worst damage, and encouraged members to make appropriate plans for the extended outage.
“We have crews out there right now, but the restoration process will be slow because of the extent of the damage in this area,” said Kenneth J. Maginley, Bluestem’s general manager. “We have to rebuild the lines from the substation first so that we can get power to the rest of our distribution lines.”
The line crews continue to battle icy conditions and falling snow to restore service.
“In the Leonardville area, approximately three miles of the main distribution line east of the Leonardville substation went down completely, and nearly all the utility poles were broken,” explained Maginley. “The distribution lines are inoperable, and the distribution lines going north and south from Leonardville also received extensive damage. This damage needs to be repaired to provide distribution service into the rural Riley area.”
The area of Olsburg received even greater damage.
“The ice storm destroyed approximately six miles of main distribution line running east and south of Olsburg, breaking nearly all the poles and leaving the distribution lines inoperable,” Maginley continued. “The distribution lines going south and west from Olsburg also received extensive damage.”
As work crews complete restoration efforts elsewhere on Bluestem’s system, they will be moved to these areas to assist the restoration efforts.
“We continue to work hard to complete the restoration process, and we stress our concern for the safety of our members,” Maginley said. “We ask that people please stay away from any downed power lines. Please do not try to remove fallen limbs or other items from the power lines. We are doing our best to get electric service restored to all of our members as soon as possible, and we thank our members for their patience.”
This outage, being heralded as one of the worst for the area, has affected more than 50,000 electric cooperative members from across the state.
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 15, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative is reporting major progress in their power restoration efforts today. Things went well despite snow and bad roads making getting around difficult. A total of 57 additional linemen from Kansas, North Dakota, Arkansas Louisiana and Colorado spread out throughout the District 1 area restoring power to members in Ellsworth Lincoln and Russell Counties. District 1 which is the major damage area is reporting 700 members without service with approximately 500 of those being in Ellsworth County 100 in Lincoln and 100 in Russell County. Total restoration of power in this district is not expected until Friday.
District 2, in Mankato is reporting 50 consumers still off with the majority of those being on long sparsely populated taps. Total restoration of power is expected to be Monday.
District 3 in Belleville reports 80 members still without power. Total restoration in this District is expected tomorrow, Sunday.
“Although there is still a lot of work to be done, we are closing in on it,” said District 1Operations Manager, David Miller. “We have a lot of help and trucks, everyone is working very hard to get things back on. But keep in mind that the ones we got on today were the easy ones.”
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 14, Mankato, Kansas: Power restoration in the Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. Service area continues. Although not as much progress was made as was anticipated, progress was made. Crews from several different contractors as well as area cooperatives have joined the efforts in Ellsworth, Lincoln and Russell counties and more linemen are expected to join the efforts tomorrow. Motel rooms in the area are very scarce making logging of crews a problem. Some crews need to stay in Beloit and Concordia, as area motels are full.
An estimated 1,275 Rolling Hills members remain without service with the majority of those being in the District 1 area, which includes Ellsworth, Lincoln and Russell counties. Midwest Energy still does not have power restored to the Frederick substation, which serves the Lorraine area in Southern Ellsworth County. An estimated 1,000 members are without service in the District 1 area. Restoration efforts in this area are expected to take another week.
Crews in the Mankato area made more progress as ice cleared the lines yesterday making it easier for crews to repair the wire today. Staff in the District 2 office reports most of Smith County and Osborne County back in service with the biggest problem area being in the Hunter area. It is anticipated that most of the customers in the District 2 area will be back in service by Monday evening providing the current snowstorm does not cause additional outages.
The Belleville office reports an estimated 50 to 75 members still without service. “Because most of these customers are on long taps with some pole damage restoration to these customers will be slower,” said Melvin Jeardoe, Operations Manager of District 3. However, if the current snow storm doesn’t cause us any additional problems we would expect to have everyone on in this district by Sunday evening.”
“We continue to stress that safety is our number one concern,” said Dale Weinhold Director Member Service. “Please stay away from any downed power lines and ask our advice prior to hooking up any standby generation. We also appreciate your support and cooperation. We are doing our best to get electric service restored to all of our members as soon as possible.”
Rolling Hills Electric with offices in Belleville, Mankato and Ellsworth serves 10,000 members in 16 North Central Kansas counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 13, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Ice falling from wires caused numerous additional outages throughout the Rolling Hills Electric service territory. All three districts report more members without power today then yesterday. Additionally as wires broke poles snapped adding to the number of broken poles. The bright spot in the day is that nearly all of the ice has melted from the lines making them easier to repair. An additional 16 employees from other Kansas cooperatives will join Rolling Hills employees tomorrow. Also, an electric contractor will arrive with additional trucks and 24 linemen. With the these crews an additional 57 linemen have arrived to assist in power restoration.
All of the extra help will be used in the District 1 area, which include Ellsworth, Lincoln, and Russell counties where approximately 1,750 members are now without service. Cooperative staff has estimated an additional 100 poles were lost today bringing the total estimated pole loss to 700. Power was just recently restored to the City of Wilson, any members residing in Wilson that are without power should call our office to report the outage.
District 2 also had additional outages today with approximately 1,500 members currently out of power. Most of the outages in the District 2 area, which include Mitchell, Jewell, Osborne and Smith Counties, are wire breaks and tree limbs.
District 3, which includes Republic, Cloud and Washington counties, also received additional outage calls today as ice begin dropping from lines. Approximately 200 members remain without service. Cooperative staff estimates the loss of an additional 25 poles bringing the total estimate to 75 broken poles. Due to the loss of poles and wires today the estimated restoration time has been extended to Sunday providing weather cooperates.
Restoration time in the other two districts is estimated to take 10 to 14 days depending on weather conditions and available help.
“I want to continue to remind everyone to stay away from any downed power lines,” stated Director of Member Service, Dale Weinhold. “Our phone lines are very busy but we still appreciate your calls about poles or wires down. We also appreciate the many calls of support and understanding. You can be assured that we are doing our very best to get your service restored as soon as possible.”
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 12, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: Crews from Rolling Hills Electric were joined today by 17 linemen, 4 digger trucks and 4 basket trucks from Mid Plains Power Inc. Grand Island Nebraska. Mid Plains will be working in the Ellsworth, District 1 area where 1,000 members still remain without power. Very little progress was made today as poles continued to break from the existing ice load. Progress is also being hampered by the extremely slick road conditions. We are now estimating 500 to 600 poles down in the District 1 area.
District 2 in Mankato is also reporting very little progress in restoration of power to members. Crews continue to work diligently, but lines continue to break under the ice load. Estimated members without service in the Mankato district remain at 1,000. However, there are very few broken poles in that area, most of the damage is being caused by trees falling through lines and line breakage.
District 3 in Belleville reports that they have approximately 100 members still without power and anticipate all District 3 members should have power restored by Friday. When all members in District 3 have their power restored crews will move to the District 1 area.
“Members, especially in the District 1 area which include Ellsworth, Lincoln and Russell Counties should prepare for the long haul, said Director of Member Services Dale Weinhold. “Although some members especially those on main feeder lines will have power restored in the next few days, some could be off for as long as a week. Those without heat, especially the elderly should make arrangements to stay with relatives or friends. Although we restore power to members every hour there also are some that go back off. As the temperature starts climbing and ice starts dropping, lines will hit together causing more outages.”
The City of Wilson remains without power as the Transmission line feeding the city substation is down. Crews from Western Electric, Wakeeney hope to have the poles replaced and power restored by Thursday evening.
Rolling Hills again reminds members to stay clear of any downed power lines. Although our phone lines are busy we appreciate calls reporting downed poles and wires. We will respond as quickly as possible and knowing where poles and lines are down help us restore power quicker. The Rolling Hills staff appreciate the patience, understanding and help we have received from members. We are working around the clock to restore your power.
Rolling Hills Electric with offices in Belleville, Mankato and Ellsworth services 10,000 members in 16 North Central Kansas Counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###
News Release From Southern Pioneer Electric Company
Electric Company Continues Restoration Efforts
For Immediate Release
December 12, 2007 –As ice-coated power lines and trees continue to fall, nearly 1,100 customers are without power in the Southern Pioneer Electric Company service territory.
Seven line crews from Kansas co-ops, including linemen from Pioneer Electric, Southern Pioneer’s parent company, and electrical contracted crews are diligently working to keep progress going. The electric company linemen and personnel will continue to work around-the-clock to both identify the damage to our system and to restore service to our consumers.
Because the system remains ice-coated, estimated outage times have not yet been determined. As stated previously, the coated power lines and trees are continuing to fall in the service territory, taking power lines down with them causing re-evaluation of the damage. Therefore, it is difficult at this time to provide accurate outage restoration times.
Across the state of Kansas, more than 4,000 utility poles were lost from the winter storm that blanketed the Midwest this week.
For more information about the storm restoration efforts, go to the Southern Pioneer Electric Company (SPECo) website at www.southernpioneer.net. Southern Pioneer Electric Company serves approximately 18,000 consumers and operates in 10 counties and 34 communities. SPECo's service territory stretches east from Liberal to Medicine Lodge and north to Pratt and back west to Greensburg, Kansas. Southern Pioneer Electric Company's customer services offices are located in Liberal and Medicine Lodge with corporate offices in Ulysses, KS.
###
News Release From Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative
Mankato, KS
For Immediate Release
December 11, 2007, Mankato, Kansas: The devastating ice storm that made its way across Kansas has left approximately 3,000 customers of Rolling Hills Electric without power.
The hardest hit area is the District 1 area. The District 1 office is located in Ellsworth and covers Ellsworth, Lincoln, and Russell counties. An estimated 1,500 customers remain without power and approximately 300 poles are down.
The District 2 office in Mankato reports approximately 1,000 customers still without power. Most of the outages are wire breaks with only a small number of poles lost. District 2 includes Jewell, Mitchell, Osborne and Smith Counties.
The District 3 office in Belleville reports the smallest number of outages with approximately 400 members still without power and approximately 50 poles down. District 3 includes Republic, Cloud and Washington Counties.
The cooperative expects 16 Electrical Contracting crews to arrive tomorrow, December 12, to assist with the restoration process.
At this time the cooperative is not making an estimate on the time to completely restore power; however it is expected to continue through the weekend. The weather continues to hamper the restoration process.
“We ask that our members be patient, we will get everyone back on as soon as possible, said Director of Member Service Dale Weinhold. We want to stress that there are numerous wires down throughout the service area. Please stay completely away from any downed power line. Call us and report the location of downed wires and poles and let us come out and safely take care of it. Any downed wire has the potential to be energized”.
Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative with offices in Belleville, Mankato and Ellsworth serves 10,000 customers in 16 North Central Kansas counties.
For More Information Call:
Dale Weinhold
Director Member Service
785 472 4021
###