NORTON, KS 03-25-2022—

Freezing rain and snow arrived early Tuesday morning in Prairie Land Electric Cooperative, Inc. territory, and when the wind picked up, it began to cause power outages throughout Rooks, Graham and Phillips counties, beginning at 3:07 a.m.

Lineworkers were dispatched immediately to begin restoring power to Prairie Land members, but the wind continued, and by 8:00 a.m. there were approximately 2600 meters reporting power outages. Additional Crews from unaffected areas were dispatched to the three hardest hit counties to help assess damages. Prairie Land’s goal is to safely restore electric service to every home and business as quickly as possible.

With 35 lineworkers running 20 trucks, including diggers, large bucket trucks, small service bucket trucks and pickups, restoration started early Tuesday morning. They found 60 broken poles, 75 damaged cross arms, and countless damaged or broken wires. Crews worked into the evening on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, there were still over 700 meters out.

Crews from Concordia, Hill City, Norton, Oberlin, Phillipsburg, St. Francis and Smith Center continued to work the damage on Wednesday. They again worked into the evening and were able to restore service to all residences before dark. Non-residential services were repaired on Thursday.

Prairie Land Electric would like to remind the public of the dangers associated with lines that are broken or touching the ground. If you see anything out of the ordinary, stay far away. Do not drive over downed power lines; take another route and report the problem by calling our toll-free number at (800) 577-3323. 

Outage updates are posted to the Facebook page of Prairie Land Electric Cooperative, Inc. The feed can be viewed on prairielandelectric.com for members who don’t use social media. Our customer service representatives can also provide updates for members who call in.