Otter Tail Power continues work to restore power in Stutsman County

Yahoo

4 hours ago

Jun. 23—JAMESTOWN — About 1,800 Otter Tail Power Co. customers in Stutsman County are without power as of 6 p.m. Monday, June 23, according to the company's power outage map.
Otter Tail Power restored power to its customers north of the railroad tracks in Jamestown at about 11:15 p.m. Sunday, June 22.
Otter Tail Power said earlier Monday it was still experiencing nested outages in Jamestown and would continue to make repairs until power was restored to all customers.
If power was restored but anybody is still without electricity, the company said the issues might be specific to a particular location. Visit
www.otpco.com/outages
for more information on what to do after power is restored to your area, the company said.
Otter Tail Power says nested outages can be caused by localized damage, blown fuses or faulty equipment, service line issues, meter or panel problems or manual isolation.
Two storms moved through Jamestown Friday evening and early Saturday. The storms caused power outages to more than 20,000 Otter Tail Power customers in its service area in Minnesota and North Dakota. The company said multiple tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail occurred in large portions of its service area and wind gusts of up to 94 mph contributed to "significant damage."
Power was restored Monday at Bordulac, Eldridge, Kensal, Luverne and Medina, Otter Tail Power reported at 6 p.m. Monday.
Power was estimated to be restored on Monday, June 23, in the following communities near Jamestown: Courtenay, Dazey, Erie, Leal, Rogers and Wimbledon.
The company said Sunday its process is to identify damage and needed repairs, beginning with repairs to substations and transmission lines, which must be repaired before power can be restored to communities. It said in many locations, it has been able to move to fixing main distribution lines that serve many homes and businesses, which brings power to the largest number of customers as soon as possible. The company expects to be finalizing repairs, then move to smaller neighborhood lines and then individual homes or businesses that need service.
Otter Tail will provide another update at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 24.
The company's outage map and other information are available at
otpco.com/outages
. Customer outages can be reported by calling 800-257-4044 or 218-739-8877 or online at
otpco.com
.
The city of Jamestown lifted its restrictions for water and sewer on Monday, June 23, and residents could resume normal usage, according to the city engineer's office.
Tyler Michel, public works director, said having no electricity for the pumps at lift stations can cause the wells inside to fill up with sanitary sewer.
"Then they could overflow or cause backups in the home," he said.
Michel said the lift stations currently are operable.
"There's some things that they are working through to get them all fully restored, but they are operational enough where we can go back to normal usage," he said.
The city has not yet determined if tree cleanup along streets and avenues will take place. A decision will be made in the near future, the city engineer's office said.
"We spent all day Saturday getting the streets open, and we have not yet determined if we are going to pick up anything from the boulevards," Michel said.
He said hours will continue to be extended at the city baler and landfill drop-off site where residents bring tree debris.
"As long as there's people dropping off, we will probably keep them open," he said. "If things start to slow down, what we'll do is we'll close that inside gate to close the gate, and then they can drop off at the normal location outside the gate."
Residents may view city licensed contractors on the city's website, www.JamestownND.gov.
Michel said some city vehicles received damage from hail. He also said the Jamestown Civic Center's roof received some damage as well.