By: Sheila Crowley
Murray County News Staffwriter
Just kidding… Just when you thought Mother Nature had already thrown a historic storm your way earlier this winter, April hits and not only snow, but wind, rain, and ice hit the area to basically shut down the majority of southwest Minnesota.
Meteorologists predicted there would be a major storm (Wesley) the weekend prior to the event happening. Residents went to bed on Tuesday evening, April 9th with some sleet and awoke to thunder-snow. As Wednesday progressed the precipitation alternated between snow, ice, and rain. Along with that came the strong winds. Power outages started coming across the wire late Wednesday afternoon.
With initial outage numbers over 6,700 Monday morning’s update stated the number had dropped to 1,338. The majority of the city of Fulda, portions of Fulda area, Lismore area, city of Reading, portions of Avoca going east and west, along with south and east of the Ellsborough Substations were energized on Sunday.
Nobles Cooperative Electric outage numbers significantly by Tuesday morning (4/16) decreasing as restoration efforts continue. At the height, 4,500 members were affected. As of 8 a.m. this morning, 659 members remain without power, with crews working at almost all locations Tuesday. Sixty-five linemen working on our distribution system and over 100 contractors working on transmission lines, continue to address the outages with the same force as when they began.
On Tuesday the coop anticipated members in the city of Wilmont, townships of Leeds and northern Fenton to be energized. Crews were also backfeeding and energizing the majority of the members of Lake Sarah from the Ellsborough Substation. Wednesday, crews will energize the four circuits going out of the Rushmore Substation.
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