JACKSON — Mother Nature whipped up a strong storm late Thursday that caused more than 600 outages in the Heron Lake and Okabena area., according to a Federated Rural Electric press release.
Power went off around 11:34 p.m. Thursday night due to the lightning and strong winds, the press release said. Nine poles snapped along 340th Avenue, four miles west of Okabena and one mile south. Crews back-fed the power.
On Friday, Federated crews were removing the poles that were snapped and the four poles that were blown across the road into the ditch on the opposite side, the press release said. Crews will rebuild that line starting Monday. In addition, members lost power in Heron Lake, Okabena and Dundee.
“Federated crews patrolled the lines during the night, but didn’t find any downed lines so lightning was most likely the cause of the outage,” said George Madden, Federated’s Operations Manager. “We then restored power, and it held just before 2 a.m.”
“Federated thanks members for their patience,” Madden added. “Be safe when it comes to downed lines. Do not drive under tipped poles or over downed lines as you never know if the line is still hot, just stay away to avoid the risk of electrocution. If you can see downed lines, call and report that to us as it helps our outage response time.”
