Winter Storm Ursa brought a crippling, destructive blizzard to the western part of Wheatland Electric's service territory in the final weekend of April 2017. In the height of the storm Wheatland Electric had 15,000+ meters out of power. Within 24 hours of the storm subsiding only 3,000 meters were out of power.
Below you will see a copy of the ongoing outage update post that Wheatland is maintaining on our Facebook page. The updates are in order from most recent to oldest. Check back periodically for updates on our restoration efforts. For those of you on Facebook feel free to check there directly for live updates as well as photos and videos of the restoration efforts.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/30/17-8:20 a.m.
As of 5:00 p.m. Friday, May 26th, we had 15 meters remaining out of power. All remaining meters out of power are located in Wichita County.
We will have multiple crews working in the Wichita County area again this week as our crews continue to work to restore all remaining meters.
****OUTAGE UPDATE**** 05/26/2017-9:28 a.m.
We currently have 25 meters remaining out of power as a result of storm damage caused by Winter Storm Ursa. We have 8 meters out in Hamilton County and 17 remaining in Wichita County.
We continue to have multiple crews working in both counties to restore power to these meters as quickly and safely as possible. This weekend we will have no crews working on Saturday and our crews will resume restoration efforts on Tuesday, May 30th after the Memorial Day holiday.
****OUTAGE UPDATE**** 05/24/2017-11:15 a.m.
As of 10:00 a.m. this morning we had 37 remaining out of power. These remaining meters were located in Wichita and Hamilton Counties.
We have multiple crews working in both these areas to restore these remaining outages as fast and safe as we possibly can.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/23/17-9:15 a.m.
As of 9:00 a.m. this morning, we had 48 meters remaining out of power. There are 3 meters remaining out of power in Greeley County and the rest divided nearly evenly between Wichita and Hamilton Counties.
This week, we still have two crews from the eastern portion of our service territory assisting in our outage restoration efforts in Wichita and Hamilton Counties. In addition, we have crews from other districts in the western portion of our service territory assisting in restoration efforts In these two counties as well. Our crews
continue to work to restore power to all remaining meters as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/19/17-6:00 p.m.
As of 4:30 p.m. we had 65 meters remaining out of power. These remaining meters are located nearly evenly in Wichita, Greeley and Hamilton Counties. Rain throughout these areas today made it difficult to get to the places our crews needed to be to make repairs. Due to continued rain forecasted in the area tonight and in the morning, we have suspended outage restoration work for the weekend.
Our crews will return to continue their outage restoration efforts on Monday, May 22nd.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/18/17-9:00 a.m.
As of 8:00 a.m. this morning we had 95 meters remaining out of power. These meters are located primarily in Wichita and Hamilton Counties, while a handful remain in Greeley County. The large majority of these remaining outages are for meters that provide power to rural isolated areas for uses such as general agriculture, irrigation and gas wells.
Today we have six crews working in Wichita County, four crews working in Hamilton County and several more working in other areas of our western service territory. Our crews continue to work on the repair/replacement of downed polls and lines to restore service to these isolated areas. We will continue working to restore power to these remaining meters as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/17/2017-11:00 a.m.
As of 8:00 a.m. this morning we had 139 meters remaining out of power as a result of damage caused by Winter Storm Ursa. The majority of these meters still out of power are in Wichita and Hamilton Counties.
Today we have five crews working in Wichita County, four crews working in Hamilton County and several more working in other areas of our western service territory. Our crews continue to work on replacing poles and rebuilding sections of downed lines to restore power to isolated rural meters for services to irrigation wells, gas/oil wells, stock wells and others. We will continue to work to restore power to every meter as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/16/2017-10:00 a.m.
As of 8:00 a.m. this morning we had 161 meters remaining out of power. 67 of those are in Wichita County with another 56 located in Hamilton County, the rest are scattered throughout the other portions of our western service territory.
Today we have six crews working in Wichita County, four crews working in Hamilton County and several more working in other areas of our western service territory. Our crews continue to work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/15/2017-9:30 a.m.
As of 8:00 a.m. this morning we had 178 meters remaining out of power. The majority of these meters continue to be in Wichita and Hamilton Counties with a few others scattered throughout portions of our western service territory.
Today we have crews working on outage restoration as follows: five crews working in Wichita County, five crews working in Hamilton County and several more crews working in other areas of our western service territory. Our crews will continue to work to restore power to all meters as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/12/2017-6:30 p.m.
As of 6:00 p.m. we had 208 meters remaining out of power. The majority of these meters are located in Wichita and Hamilton Counties. We have several crews still working this evening as we continue our outage restoration efforts.
Tomorrow, (Saturday, May 13) we will have crews working throughout the western portions of our service territory continuing outage restoration efforts.
We will have no crews working on outage restoration this Sunday, May 14. By tomorrow, we will have had our crews working for 15 straight days on outage restoration in the western portion of our service territory. We feel it's important, for their safety and for the well-being of their families, to give them Sunday off to rest and spend time with their families.
Our crews will continue their outage restoration efforts again on Monday, May 15. We will be bringing additional crews back on Monday, from the eastern portion of our service territory, to continue to assist in outage restoration.
Thank you to all our members for their continued patience and understanding during this extended outage, as we work to restore power to all meters as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/12/2017-11:15 a.m.
As of 7:00 p.m. last night we had 242 meters remaining out of power. Wichita and Hamilton counties each have approximately 100 meters still out of power with the rest of the meters being spread throughout other portions of our western service territory.
We have nine crews working in Wichita County today continuing to work on restoring outages and making repairs to our system.
We have another three crews working in Hamilton County today continuing to work on restoring outages and making repairs to our system. All of our crews will continue working to restore outages as quickly and safely as possible.
All residential members living in Scott, Wichita, Greeley, Tribune Hamilton, Kearny, Finney and Gray counties should have power to their residence. If you are without power to your residence and have not reported your outage, please contact your local office or 800-ON-AGAIN (after hours) to report your outage.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/11/2017-6:30 p.m.
As of 6:18 p.m. we have power restored to ALL OCCUPIED RESIDENTIAL METERS! Our crews have been working tirelessly for the past 13 days to restore power to every meter. Our primary goal has been to first restore every occupied residential meter as quickly and safely as we possibly could. All residential members living in Scott, Wichita, Greeley, Tribune, Kearny, Finney and Gray counties should have power to their residence. If you are without power to your residence and have not reported your outage, please contact your local office or 800-ON-AGAIN (After hours) to report your outage.Thank you to all of our members for their patience and understanding through this extended outage. Our crews will continue working tomorrow and in the coming days to restore power to every 243 meters remaining out of power, as quickly and safely as we possibly can.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/11/2017-2:10 p.m.
As of 2:00 p.m. we had 255 meters out of power and only 1 occupied residential meter. Our crews expect to have power restored to this final occupied residential meter by the end of the day today.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/11/2017-10:00 a.m.
As of this morning we have 2 remaining residential meters still out of power. We anticipate having them both restored by today. Overnight rains of anywhere from an 1-1 1/2 inches will slow our crews down some today.
We have 12 crews still working in the Wichita County area today as we continue to try to restore power to all remaining outages as quickly and safely as possible.
We do still have approximately 100 meters remaining out of power in Hamilton County and we have two crews working there today as well.
****OUTAGE UPDATE**** 05/10/2017-8:52 p.m.
Unfortunately, lightning in the vicinity of where our crews were working did not allow for them to continue to work safely this evening. They'll be back at it in the morning to get our remaining occupied residential meters restored as quickly and safely as possible!
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/10/2017-5:55 p.m.
As of 5:20 p.m. we had a total of 271 meters still out of power and 5 of those were occupied residential meters. We are now optimistic that we'll have power restored to ALL REMAINING OCCUPIED RESIDENTIAL METERS by this evening if everything goes as planned!
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/10/2017-3:10p.m.
As of 12:30 p.m. we had a total of 295 meters still out of power and 18 of those were residential. Today we have 17 crews working in the western part of our service territory and 13 of those are working in the Wichita County area. Of those 13 crews, four are mutual aid crews from Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative and Bluestem Electric Cooperative. We appreciate their help! We are currently estimating that will have all residential outages restored by Saturday.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/09/2017-9:30 p.m.
As of 9:15 p.m. we had 319 total meters still out of power and 28 of those were residential. Today, we restored power to 127 meters and 18 of those were residential. Our last three crews in the Wichita County area have gone home for the evening. We plan to send 14 crews back to Wichita County again tomorrow as we continue our efforts to restore power to every remaining residential meter as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/09/2017-7:45 p.m.
As of 2:40 p.m. we had 349 total meters still out of power and 35 of those were residential. This morning we released two crews from Radiant and Caney Valley
Cooperatives and welcomed in four new mutual aid crews through the Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. mutual aid program. Three of those from Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative and one from Bluestem Electric Cooperative.
Today, we had a total of 18 crews working in the western portion of our service territory and 14 of those were working in Wichita County. In addition to those crews, we had numerous support staff working in the Leoti Office/Warehouse assisting crews with load outs of parts, supplies and poles. We delivered lunch to nearly 60 people today, including linemen and support staff, all working to restore power to the remaining residential outages in Wichita County.
We are currently estimating that we will be able to restore all remaining residential outages by the end of the day on Saturday. Our crews continue to work on long stretches of downed lines and poles to reach just a few meters at a time. They will continue to work as quickly and safely as possible to restore these remaining outages.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/08/2017-9:38 p.m.
As of 9:30 p.m. we had 446 total meters still out of power and 46 of those were residential. Our last crew has gone home for the night. We'll be back at it in the morning with approximately 18 crews working in the western portion of our service territory and 14 of those will be working in Wichita County as we continue to try and restore all of our residential members as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/08/2017-6:50 p.m.
As of 4:15 p.m. we had 466 meters still out of power and 53 of those were residential. All remaining residential meters are located in Wichita County. Today we had 14 crews total working in the western portion of our service territory. 12 of those crews were working in Wichita County. Joining us today were a mutual aid crew from Lane Scott Electric and a crew from our friends at Sunflower Electric Power Corporation. Thank you for coming to help us!
Tomorrow we are releasing our two mutual aid crews from Radiant Electric Cooperative, Inc. and Caney Valley Electric Cooperative and bringing in four new mutual aid crews. One from Bluestem Electric Cooperative and three from Rolling Hills Electric Cooperative, Inc. That will bring our total number of crews working tomorrow in Wichita County to 14.
A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE TWO CREWS FROM RADIANT AND CANEY VALLEY FOR ALL YOUR HELP! We appreciate it and thank you to your coops for letting us borrow you this past week!
SCOTT/GREELEY/HAMILTON/KEARNY/FINNEY/GRAY COUNTIES
Currently we have all residential meters restored in these counties. If you are a
residential member living in these counties and are still without power please call your
local office or 800-ON-AGAIN (For after hours calls) to report your outage.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/07/2017-7:20 p.m.
As of 6:00 p.m. this evening we had 569 meters still out of power and 74 of those were residential. All residential meters in Hamilton County have been restored.
SCOTT/GREELEY/HAMILTON/KEARNY/FINNEY/GRAY COUNTIES
Currently we have all residential meters restored in these counties. If you are a residential member living in these counties and are still without power please call your local office or 800-ON-AGAIN (For after hours calls) to report your outage.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/07/2017-4:49 p.m.
As of 2:00 p.m. this afternoon we had 637 meters out of power and 82 of those were residential. Our crews continue working to rebuild and replace large sections of downed lines and poles. Currently, we plan to have 12 crews working in the Wichita County area tomorrow to continue repairing downed lines and 2 crews dedicated to clearing downed poles and lines from roadways.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/07/2017-9:10 a.m.
As of 6:00 a.m. this morning we had 683 meters still out of power and 90 of those were residential. Today we have 13 crews working in the western part of our service territory working to restore outages and repair damage to our system from Winter Storm Ursa.
SCOTT/GREELEY/KEARNY/FINNEY/GRAY COUNTIES
Currently we have all residential meters restored in these counties. If you are a residential member living in these counties and are still without power please call your local office or 800-ON-AGAIN (For after hours calls) to report your outage.
HAMILTON COUNTY
After today, we expect to have all residential meters in Hamilton county restored.
WICHITA COUNTY
Today we have 7 crews working in Wichita County. As our other crews continue to complete critical repairs in other areas, we will continue to shift more crews to this area. Tomorrow we plan to have 9 crews working in this area.
Progress in restoring all remaining meters will continue to be slow as we have crews now repairing extensive sections of downed lines and poles in order to restore power to just a few meters at a time
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/06/2017-4:16 P.M.
SCOTT COUNTY AND GREELEY COUNTIES
We have all residential meters, providing service to inhabited residences, restored in this area.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/06/2017-4:13 P.M.
KEARNY COUNTY AREA
We have four crews working in this area today. WE EXPECT TO HAVE ALL RESIDENTIAL METERS IN THIS AREA RESTORED BY THE END OF THE DAY TODAY.
We have crews working in the following areas in this area:
One crew working south of our Lakin substation and the Lakin power plant to repair a line that feeds a gas plant in this area.
We have another crew working west of Deerfield repairing a 35kV circuit between Deerfield and Lakin. This is a primary section of line that we are working to restore a normal loop feed to. This is an area where we've made temporary repairs to restore power as quickly as possible but need to repair to normal as soon as possible to ensure adequate and reliable service to this area.
We have two crews working south of river road and back to the east to restore power to a church and other meters in this area.
Our crews in this area are turning their focus to repair lines and routes that supply irrigation meters so we can begin to restore power to some of these types of meters.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/06/2017-3:37 P.M.
HAMILTON COUNTY AREA
We have three crews working in this area to repair downed poles and lines. Progress continues to be slow due to the large number of poles and extensive sections of line required to be repaired to restore power to one or two members. As of last night at 9:30 p.m. we had 14 residential meters still out of power in this area. We plan to restore power to 6 of those meters by the end of today. WE EXPECT TO HAVE ALL RESIDENTIAL METERS IN THIS AREA RESTORED BY THE END OF THE DAY TOMORROW.
Today we have crews working in the following areas in Hamilton County:
We have one crew working approximately 10 miles north of Kendall. We should be able to energize this line tomorrow and restore power to 2-3 residential meters along this section of line.
We have another crew working west of Syracuse one mile and should be able to energize and restore power to 2-3 residential meters along this section of line later this afternoon.
We also have a crew working three miles east of Syracuse and we should be able to energize this line by this evening to restore power to meters along this route.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/06/2017-3:00 p.m.
WICHITA COUNTY AREA
That's a total of 7 crews continuing to work in this area to repair downed poles and lines. Progress continues to be slow due to the large number of poles and sections of line required to be repaired to restore power to one or two members. As of last night at 9:30 p.m. we had less than 100 residential meters out of power in this area.
Today we have crews working in the following areas in Wichita County:
We have one crew working four miles west and six miles north of Leoti near Road 8.
We have another crew working five miles west, nine miles south and back to the east.
We have a crew working along the Pence Road/Road D to repair a section of broken poles and tie an alternate feed from Scott County to this area to restore a few residential meters.
We have two crews working two miles north of Leoti, between Road 11 and HWY 25 along Road M to repair a section of broken poles and downed lines.
We have two crews working approximately nine miles north, nine west and back to the east along Road G on a section of nearly FIVE MILES of downed poles and lines. 
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/05/2017-8:20 p.m.
As of 6:00 p.m. this evening we had 840 total meters out of service and 140 of those were residential. Road conditions have increased dramatically in many areas and our line crews are able to get where they need to be to make repairs much easier. Outage restoration continues to be slow as our crews are repairing significant stretches of line to bring power to just a few meters at a time. Our crews continue to focus restoration efforts on smaller sections of downed line and poles, where we can bring the most members back to power as quickly as possible. We still have a number of sections of line in Wichita county with 20, 30 and even 60 poles down. Tomorrow we plan to bring in an additional crew to work in the Wichita County area bringing our total number of crews working in that area to 7.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/05/2017-2:00 p.m.
WICHITA COUNTY AREA
Our crews in this area continue to work on repairing large sections of downed line and poles in this area. Our crews are often having to repair large sections of downed line just to restore power to one or two members. Our current revised estimate is that we have nearly 800 poles down or damaged in this area.
We have crews working in the following areas in the Wichita County area.
We have a crew working northwest of Leoti, approximately four miles west and six miles north. They should be finished with this section of repairs today.
We have three crews working northeast of Leoti, approximately four miles east and between one to eight miles north to Road D. We should be finished with this area today and should be able to energize this stretch of line and pick up some residential members along here.
We have one crew working along the Scott/Wichita County line, along Road D. They should be finished with this area by tomorrow.
TOMORROW WE ARE HOPING TO HAVE CREWS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS.
Two crews working approximately one mile east and three miles north along Road D.
One crew working on a mile stretch of downed line and poles approximately four miles west and five miles north near Road J.
One crew working southwest of Leoti along Road Y.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-10:50 a.m.
HAMILTON COUNTY/SYRACUSE AREA
We currently have crews working in the following areas as we continue to work to repair a number of stretches of line to allow us to get to one or two residential members at a time.
We have one crew working west of Syracuse who should finish up this section of line and will then be moving north of Syracuse this afternoon.
We have one crew working one mile north of Syracuse on a section of downed poles to restore power to one member.
We have another crew working northeast of Syracuse who should be able to restore power to a couple of members along this line by this afternoon.
We will have a crew moving three miles east of Syracuse to begin repairs by either late this afternoon or tomorrow.
We will move another crew one mile west of Syracuse tomorrow or Sunday. Right now we anticipate being able to restore power to all residential members in this area by Sunday evening.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-10:33 a.m.
As of this morning we had 942 meters out of service and 163 of those were residential. Our crews continue to repair sections of downed wire and poles that make for slow going as we try to restore power to these remaining meters. We will have crews working through the weekend to ensure that we get as many residential members back on as quickly as possible.
Today we will have 6 crews working in the Wichita County area repairing/replacing broken poles and downed lines. We anticipate being able to add additional crews to this area tomorrow.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-10:13 p.m.
As of 9:00 p.m. this evening we are down to 970 meters out of service and 170 of those are residential. Our crews made big strides late this afternoon and this evening to get a number of meters back on.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-6:39 p.m.
As of 6:00 p.m. this evening we had 1,404 meters out of service, with 221 of those being residential.
Crews in the Kearny County/Lakin-Deerfield and Hamilton County areas should have almost all remaining residential outages restored by tomorrow evening. Tomorrow as work in other areas is completed, we will continue to shift our crews around to increase our focus on repairing the significant amount of damaged lined and poles still remaining in Wichita County.
IF YOU LIVE IN THE CITIES OF DEERFIELD OR HOLCOMB AND ARE STILL WITHOUT POWER, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL OFFICE IN GARDEN CITY AT 620-275-4223 OR (800) ON AGAIN - AFTER HOURS.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-6:20 p.m.
KEARNY COUNTY/LAKIN-DEERFIELD AREA
We currently have crews working in the following areas continuing to repair sections of downed lines and poles.
We have a crew working near the Lakin Dairy on some poles that are down in this area to restore power to a nearby residential member.
We are working to repair a broken pole 2 miles north of Deerfield.
We continue to work to repair the line between Deerfield and Lakin along HWY 50. This line is energized but we still have a number of structures that need to be repaired to ensure this line is safe and reliable.
Tomorrow we will be working south of the Kearny/Finney County line to repair storm damages in this area. We anticipate having nearly all residential outages restored by tomorrow evening for this area. Like other areas, our progress has been slowed by having to repair significant stretches of downed poles and/or lines, often times to restore one or two services.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/04/2017-3:35p.m.
WICHITA COUNTY AREA
Today we have had crews working in the following areas repairing large sections of downed lines and poles.
We have one crew working south of Leoti approximately 6 miles and back to the west for the last two days and this section of line has just been energized.
We have one crew working north of Selkirk working on a section of line along road N.
We have another crew working east of Leoti and north of HWY 96 along Road 17.
We have another crew working north of Leoti approximately 13 miles north and two miles west.
We've had a crew working in far northeast Hamilton county to create an alternate line route that we can use to get power restored to a couple of residential members in far southwest Wichita County. This line has just been energized and power restored to the members along this route. We still anticipate extended outage times for members who are in isolated areas with a large number of poles down along the lines that supply your service. Our progress has significantly slowed as we're often repairing considerable stretches of damaged lines and downed poles just to restore power to a few members.
****OUTAGE UPDATE*****05/04/2017-11:25 a.m.
As of this morning we had 1669 meters out of service, 292 of those are residential services. Our crews continue to battle extremely muddy conditions as they work at repairing storm damage. Our progress towards restoring the remaining outages has slowed considerably now as nearly every member remaining out of power requires the repair or replacement of poles and/or stringing new lines. We'll have some area specific updates for you this afternoon. THANK YOU to all of our members for your continued patience during the winter storm recovery efforts!
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/03/2017-9:18 p.m.
HAMILTON COUNTY AREA
Our current estimates are that we expect to have most residential members in this area restored in the next 2 days. We will have three crews working in this area tomorrow.
We will have crews working in the area west out of Kendall on River Road hopefully by tomorrow evening. We hope to have residential outages in this area restored by Friday.
We will have two crews working northeast of Kendall tomorrow. We hope to have residential outages in this area restored by tomorrow afternoon.
We will have one crew working northwest of Syracuse tomorrow and hope to have residential outages restored by tomorrow evening.
For some rural residential members in Hamilton County we could be looking at longer restoration times. Especially those members who are in isolated areas with poles down along the lines that supply your service.
IF YOU ARE IN THE TOWNS OF COOLIDGE, SYRACUSE OR KENDALL AND ARE STILL WITHOUT POWER PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL OFFICE IN SYRACUSE AT 620-384-5171 OR 800-ON-AGAIN (AFTER HOURS).
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/03/2017-3:00 p.m.
WICHITA COUNTY/MARIENTHAL AREA
Our current estimates are that we expect to have most residential members in this area restored in the next seven days. EXTREMELY muddy conditions are hampering restoration efforts in this area. Each of the three crews working in this area have large 4-wheel drive tractors pulling them in and out of the places they need to get to make repairs. We have three crews working in this area, including two mutual aid crews from Caney Valley Electric Cooperative and Radiant Electric Cooperative.
We have two crews working between Leoti and Marienthal along HWY 96. We expect to have the town of Marienthal restored by the end of today.
We have one crew working approximately 6 miles south of Leoti. They are working to repair a large section of down poles and lines in this area.
For some rural residential members in Wichita County we could be looking at much longer restoration times. Especially those members who are in isolated areas with poles down along the lines that supply your service.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/03/2017-3:06 p.m.
KEARNY COUNTY/LAKIN AREA
We currently estimate that we will have most of the remaining residential outages in this area restored in the next two days. We have 5 crews working in this area as follows.
We have two crews working east of Lakin along HWY 50.
We have one crew working north of Lakin along HWY 25.
We have one crew working south of Lakin in the vicinity of Lakin Lane, we expect to have have outages in this area restored by the end of tomorrow.
We have one crew working south and west of Lakin along River Rd and we expect to have outages in this area restored by the end of today.
For members between Deerfield and Lakin to the north, outage restorations are expected to be longer than the two day average for the rest of this area. EXTREMELY muddy conditions are significantly hampering our restoration efforts in this area.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-6:44 p.m.
HAMILTON COUNTY/SYRACUSE AREA
Our current estimates are that we have 400 poles down or damaged in this area. We currently have 2 crews working to make repairs and restore power in this area. We are having EXTREME difficulty in getting around in this area making restoration efforts even more difficult. We cannot get extra crews in to assist with repairs to this area until the roads improve. Our current estimates are that it could take 5-7 days to restore the remaining residential outages in this area.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017- 6:39 p.m.
KEARNY COUNTY/LAKIN AREA
Our current estimates are that we have 100 poles down or damaged in this area. We have 3-4 crews continuing to work in this area to repair/replace damaged poles and string new line. Our current estimates for this area are that it could take 2-3 more days to restore power to the remaining outages in Kearny County. We are also still assessing damage in this area and having a difficult time getting to areas to asses that damage.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-6:35 p.m.
WICHITA COUNTY/MARIENTHAL AREA
Our initial estimates are that we have 600 poles down or damaged in Wichita County. As of tomorrow morning we should have 5-6 crews working to repair/replace damaged poles and string new line. Our current best estimates are that it could take up to 3-4 more days to restore power to the remaining outages in Wichita County.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-6:19 p.m.
We now have approximately 2,000 meters out of service and approximately 400 of those are to residences. Throughout the day we've had a chance to get a better assessment of the damage to our system and currently estimate our total number of poles down or damaged to be more than 1,200. Many of these remaining meters that are out of power are due to these damaged poles and/or down lines. The restoration process for these remaining meters will be much slower than the past couple of days. Road conditions continue to make things very difficult for our linemen to get where they need to go to make repairs. We still have local farmers pulling us in and out of places we need to get to and county equipment operators continue to be a huge help to us. As of tomorrow, with the arrival of two mutual aid crews sent from other Kansas electric cooperatives, we will have 12 crews working to make repairs and restore outages. At this point we are looking at multiple days to restore many of these remaining outages. More updates specific to certain areas to follow.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-11:20 a.m.
WICHITA COUNTY/MARIENTHAL AREA
After our crews have had a chance to get around to more areas of the county we have discovered more poles damaged than our initial estimates. We are now estimating a total number of 600 poles down or damaged in Wichita County. By this afternoon, we plan to have multiple crews working to repair and replace the damage in these areas. Please keep in mind for members who are in the direct vicinity of these broken poles and more isolated rural members it could be days before we are able to restore power. We will continue to shift crews around in our service territory to assist these significant repair efforts as we are able. We have also requested the assistance of additional crews through the Kansas Electric Cooperatives Mutual Aid program.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-11:00 a.m.
KEARNY COUNTY/LAKIN AREA
We have a number of poles down in this area. We have 4 crews working north, south and east of Lakin today to repair/replace down poles. We are still patrolling lines in this area as well, to assess any additional system damage that we may have. We continue to have significant issues in getting to some of the places that we need to get to.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/02/2017-9:16 a.m.
We now have approximately 2500 meters out of power. We have a total of 10 line crews plus servicemen working in our Western Kansas territory to make repairs and continue to restore power to our members. We are concentrating extra crews for pole and line repairs in the Lakin and Wichita County/Marienthal areas today. Right now our focus remains on getting as many residential members back in power as quickly as possible. Extremely wet and muddy road conditions continue to cause our crews difficulties in getting where they need to go to make the necessary repairs to get members back on. We'll provide a couple of more area specific updates for members in Wichita County and Lakin areas very shortly.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/01/2017-8:40 p.m.
We have less than 3,000 meters remaining out of power at this time. Our crews in Syracuse and the surrounding area have been able to make considerable headway there in the last couple of hours with those substations now re-energized. We have crews working through the night in many areas including crews dedicated to the replacement of a number of broken poles. We have a large concentration of down poles in the Wichita County/Marienthal area, likely more than 200. We continue to shift crews around to maximize our restoration efforts. We have additional crews set to work in the Wichita County area tomorrow and expect to start making significant progress in the repair and replacement of these damaged poles.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/01/2017-8:05 p.m.
Our crews continue to work on restoration efforts. We now have all of our substations energized and our crews are working on closing in circuits as they are able to determine when and where it is safe to do so. In many places we still have down poles and power lines that need to be repaired. We will continue to work to restore power to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. As we are able to get the largest pieces of our system back online we will continue to increase efforts to restore power to more isolated areas and those that will require more extensive repairs.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****05/01/2017-4:43 p.m.
The main Syracuse substation is re-energized and our crews are busy closing in circuits and getting power back on in Syracuse. We are close to having our second substation in Syracuse re-energized, it should be within the hour. Once we get this substation energized we should be able to get our number of meters out under 3000. Our crews continue to work to make repairs to damaged poles and down lines and those efforts will continue into this evening and tomorrow.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****5/1/2017-2:47 P.M.
Our crews are making good progress in spite of some very challenging road conditions. County roads remain saturated and muddy making getting to areas that we need to make repairs very difficult. We now have less than 5000 meters out. We are bringing in two more crews from our Great Bend and Harper districts to assist as we continue to restore power and begin to transition to making repairs to our infrastructure that will take longer, such as repairing down lines and replacing large sections of broken poles. We anticipate having the City of Syracuse back on yet this afternoon, as well as another substation in Hamilton County. At that point we should bring our outages to under 2,500 meters.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****5-1-2017/11:00 a.m.
Our crews have been busy through the night and this morning, continuing their efforts to restore power when and where possible. We have made significant progress in the Finney County area and are now down to around 1000 services out of power. In total we have somewhere close to 7000 meters still without power. A large chunk of those are the communities of Tribune and Syracuse. Sunflower has identified a number of issues to their system including damaged pole structures. Right now Sunflower is working to energize a line that will give us a supply line into the Tribune area which will then allow us to get power down to Syracuse eventually. Once Sunflower has energized their lines we will be able to start closing in some of our distribution lines off of these substations. The process will be slow and systematic to ensure we are doing it safely and with a good assessment of the shape of our system in these areas. Once we have power to our substations in Syracuse and Tribune we can then focus our efforts on identifying smaller isolated outages that are most likely at this point caused by damage to lines and poles. We have crews who are out right now being pulled around by bulldozers, graders and tractors to get where they need to go. Thank you to the counties and farmers who are helping us. Unfortunately, this is going to be a slow process and most likely we will have some outages that will last for days due to damage to lines and poles and difficulties in getting to them. As we restore more of the larger outages we'll be better able to assess how long some of these isolated and rural outages may take to restore.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****
Ok, folks that's all the updates for tonight. We still have crews out working to restore power when and where we can. We have fresh crews scheduled to come in tomorrow from our Harper and Great Bend districts to provide much needed rest and relief to our local line crews. We will be working closely with Sunflower in the morning to assess the damage to both of our systems and devise a comprehensive plan to restore remaining outages. Thank you to all of you for your patience and understanding as we work through these difficult conditions to get power restored as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****
There continues to be a problem with the transmission line that feeds power to our substations in Leoti, Tribune, Syracuse and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, we will not be able to get power back on to these areas until tomorrow at the earliest. We are working closely with our transmission provider and will need good weather and light in the morning to try and determine the source of the problem.
In the meantime for other parts of our service area, our crews continue to work to restore power to as many members as possible as quickly as possible. We continue to make progress and will continue to work through the night to restore power as fast and as safe as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****
Horace Good Middle School has been opened as an emergency shelter for those in Finney County that are still without power or are stranded or unable to get home. The address is 1412 N Main St, Garden City, KS.
We're optimistic we'll be able to get large chunks back this evening as the weather subsides. Unfortunately, at this point we're unable to give estimated times of restoration. We can tell you that our crews are working around the clock and are continuing to work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. If you're in Finley County and need to get someplace warm or for oxygen and other similar services and can get to Horace Good safely, we'd encourage you to do so. Our best estimates at this time are that we will make significant strides in outage restoration in the next 24 hours.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****
With the snow and wind predicted to subside later this evening we're anticipating being able to make some real headway this evening. Unfortunately, there is no way we will have all outages restored tonight. We are bringing in additional crews from our Great Bend and Harper districts to provide some much needed and deserved relief to our local crews in Western KS. We anticipate making significant progress tomorrow and will most likely be left with isolated and/or rural outages at the end of tomorrow that may require additional repairs such as replacement of broken poles, repairs to downed lines, etc. We will continue to work around the clock to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE UPDATE****
Our 800#, email and Facebook messaging are bing overrun with reports of outages. Our operations and dispatch personnel have a good handle on where the outages are. Unfortunately, we just can't keep up with the volume of reports. We will continue to work to restore the outages as best we can. *** If you see or know of downed power lines or broken poles please do not go near them and please report them here or our 800#, if you are able to get through. Please provide as accurate of a location as possible including full address and city where the downed pole or lines are located.
****OUTAGE Update****
Unfortunately it's not getting any better folks. We're dealing with blizzard like conditions all over. The heavy wet snow and high winds continue to cause line gallop and sometimes we're getting an outage back literally as fast as we fix it. Combine that with low visibility and its a real struggle. Until this weather turns, we're not going to see much improvement. Our crews are doing the best they can but right now Mother Nature is outdoing our best.
****OUTAGE Update****
Our Scott City crews have been able to identify the source of the outage and are currently working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE Update****
Heavy wet snow and line gallop are continuing to cause outages throughout our western Kansas service territory. Visibility continues to be an issue as well as we are dealing with blizzard like conditions and limited visibility in many areas. Also, please note our line crews have been out for an extended period of time now. At some point we will have to get them some rest so they can continue to do their jobs safely. We will continue to work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
****OUTAGE Update****
Visibility has become an issue as our line crews try to identify, isolate and restore outages. In some areas there is no visibility and our crews cannot safely patrol lines to determine the cause of outages. We will continue to work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible as the weather allows.
Winter Storm Ursa continues to cause weather-related outage in western portions of our service territory. High winds combined with snow and ice have resulted in major substation outages on the transmission side as well as continued problems on our distribution lines. Sunflower and Wheatland will continue to work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible as the weather allows.