Lake Country Power line crews “hit the ground running” shortly after 6:30 p.m. Monday evening (May 30) after a strong thunderstorm blew through the western and northern regions of the cooperative’s service area. By 10:30 p.m., more than 8,700 members were affected.
Crews have been working all night and will continue working all day today, May 31. Overnight, crews restored service for 5,000 members. Due to access and the extent of system damages for repair, some members may be without power for another day or two. Crews are working safely and as quickly as conditions allow.
Line crews are working through a tangled mess to restore service for more than 3,700 members at 156 various outage points. Additional crews are assisting from Lake States Construction and LCP’s internal construction crews.
The storm brought straight-line winds, heavy rain, lightning, and tornado warnings with a funnel cloud spotted over Deer River Monday evening. Gusty winds up to 30 miles-per-hour are expected to continue today with more rain forecasted.
Trees took down power lines and at least 13 broken poles are reported so far.
“If you see a downed power line, stay away from it and call Lake Country Power to report it immediately,” said Greg Schulzetenberg, manager of community relations and marketing. “There is no way to tell if a power line is energized just by looking at it. Always assume it can carry current strong enough to kill.”
Members may call the cooperative at 1-800-421-9959 to report an outage, or visit the Outage Center online at www.lakecountrypower.coop or http://outage.lcp.coop for an outage status.
Lake Country Power, www.lakecountrypower.coop, is a Touchstone Energy® cooperative serving parts of eight counties in northeastern Minnesota. The rural electric cooperative provides services to more than 43,000 members and has offices located in Cohasset, Kettle River and Mountain Iron.