On December 15, 2021, a windstorm mimicking the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s struck Kansas leaving a path of destruction across the western and central part of the State. Elevated red flag fire conditions and winds clocked in the 90-mph range caused devastating destruction to homes, businesses, and property in our rural communities. Local firefighters, emergency personnel, linemen, and farmers worked fires in Lane and Ness counties where over thousands of acres of grass, property and homes were lost.
The storm was just as unrelenting to the Lane-Scott Electric system. Lane-Scott Electric serves over 6,000 homes, businesses, oil, agricultural and farming facilities across eight counties with 2,044 miles of line. At one time roughly 25% of our system was without power. Just 12 hours after the storm hit, we were down to just over 4% of meters out. Lane-Scott crews worked around the clock to temporarily back-feed electricity to by-pass damage areas and restore power to as many members as possible, as quickly as possible. However, the infrastructure needing repaired was extensive with over 160 broken poles and equipment.
Cooperatives across the state were affected by the wide-spread storm. Many made the call for mutual aid assistance from other neighboring cooperatives able to spare crews. “We’re extremely grateful to our cooperative family who responded to our call for help,” said Richard McLeon, Lane-Scott Electric General Manager. Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc. from Hooker, OK, Pioneer Electric from Ulysses, KS, and Southern Pioneer from Liberal, KS were here the next day to help restore our broken infrastructure. “When other cooperatives are in need, we go. When we’re in need, they come. It’s the cooperative way.” IES Contractors from Holdrege, NE were also in our area replacing poles from recent pole inspections and were able to lend a hand. As of Sunday, December 19th, all residential meters were back-on, and mutual aid crews were able to go home before the Christmas holiday.
As is the situation across all industries for the past year, electric utilities have been faced with global supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Transformers and meters in particular are scarce right now. Lane-Scott linemen continue to work on repairs, replacing what we can with the supplies we are able to get.
We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding of the situation and the time it takes to get everything back to working condition. Our heartfelt sincerity goes out to those who suffered major losses during this tragedy, and we commend the first responders for their excellent work and professionalism. It took everyone and we are thankful to serve such great communities.