Page 15 - Norris Electric News July-August 2022
P. 15

MUTUAL AID 15
Linemen Called To The Rescue
In many cases, the aftermath of a storm is worse than the storm itself, leaving behind broken glass, damaged homes, tree damage and downed power lines. These issues pose dangerous risks to the public if not dealt with promptly.
An EF-1 tornado occurred on June 11, 2022, in southern Gage County. The tornado was seven miles south-southwest of Wymore. The tornado had peak winds around 104 miles per hour and triggered approximately 1,500 customers to be without power. Linemen from District Operation Centers located in Beatrice, Hebron and Seward spent numerous hours working through Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday restoring power to customers.
After linemen restored power to District customers, they responded to repair damages and restore power to residences and businesses located in the city of Wymore. The city of Wymore provides utilities to approximately 900 customers by their municipally owned and operated electric company.
Norris has a Mutual Aid Agree- ment with neighboring utilities. The agreement allows utilities to help each other when natural disasters strike and cause wide- spread power outages. In each mutual aid situation, linemen are paid by the host utility that is re- questing the aid.
In less than a week, on June 14, 2022, another round of severe storms struck in Seward County.
Garett Stutzman (left) and Jackson Aden, Linemen – Seward, repair a power line brought down by tree limbs in the storm.
 The storm left approximately 4,200 District customers without power. Norris had over 75 transmission poles and over 75 distribution poles destroyed and in need of replacement. Norris was then on the other side requesting assistance. Crews from Polk County Rural Public Power District, Butler Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District came to Norris’ aid.
Neighbors helping neighbors has been a long-standing tradition among utility providers. Nebraska has the distinction of being the only state in the U.S. where everyone receives electric service from publicly owned utilities such as municipalities, electric cooperatives or rural public power districts. They all recognize an obligation to safeguard the welfare
and economic wellbeing of the customers they serve and of those that are outside their service territory boundary lines.
“Ultimately, utilities cannot prevent outages, and at times Mother Nature throws all of us challenges that exceed the limits of staff, fleet and inventory. The Mutual Aid Agreement is in place to share supplies, equipment and personnel across service territory boundary lines to ensure effective response time. I have faith not only in Norris’ dedicated team to be where and when needed but also in our neighboring utilities who are only a phone call away.”
~Darin Anderson – Area Supervisor, Seward
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