Omaha Public Power District reached full restoration following a weekend of severe storms that brought wind gusts of up to 80 mph, heavy rain and widespread damage, it reported on Aug. 14.
At the storm’s peak on Saturday morning, nearly 40,000 customers across OPPD’s 13-county service territory were without electricity. Crews worked diligently until Tuesday night, restoring power to all customers.
Nearly 500 field workers including OPPD crews, contractors and mutual aid teams from Kansas and Missouri were deployed across the hardest-hit areas, including Blair, Ashland, Fort Calhoun, Bennington, and rural Washington and Saunders counties.
Crews faced extensive damage, including downed power lines and difficult terrain made worse by heavy mud.
"This was a restoration effort that required an all-hands-on-deck response. We are grateful for the dedication of our crews and the assistance of our mutual aid partners who worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring power back to our communities," the public power utility noted.
In the first 48 hours of the outage, these crews safely put in more than 35,000 miles across the service territory, between more than 300 vehicles. This includes mutual aid partners with LE Myers, Fremont, CSR-Vector, CSR-PLC, RS Electric, Burns Electric, NPPD, Watts, and Brink & High Voltage.
In response to customer inquiries about placing more power lines underground, OPPD continues to transition overhead lines where financially and technically feasible, replacing approximately 20 to 40 miles of lines each year, it noted.
Many factors — such as cost, property impacts, and the need to maintain service accessibility — are considered in determining the best solutions for reliable electric service, it said.
