MiEnergy down to less than 400 outages remaining

Cresco, IA | Rushford, MN (6 a.m. Dec. 17, 2021)— MiEnergy Cooperative’s employee parking lot was full at 5 a.m. today with lineworkers coming back to work after getting some much-needed rest to finish restoring power to members. Crews clocked their normal Wednesday shift only to return that evening to work 24 hours straight to restore power following a storm that initially caused 7,500 outages Wednesday evening. Currently, just under 400 services remain without power.

The storm caused considerable damage to the distribution system. According to Steve Oian, MiEnergy’s vice president of operations in Minnesota, every job the crews are working on is hard and not a quick fix, but the cooperative expects to get all services back online today.

This storm caused 35 broken poles and counting. Crews have seen great devastation to members’ homes and farms as they are out restoring power. Lineworkers have remarked on the number of big, old trees that have come down in this storm and how removing them to pull the power line back up is a painstakingly slow process. 

The cooperative would like to remind the public to report downed power lines and to keep others away as it could be live.

Members can view MiEnergy’s real-time power outage by visiting https://www.mienergy.coop/outages. MiEnergy would like to thank members for their patience as crews continue to work to get the remaining services restored.