Alliant Repairing Lines After Storm: Thousands in Minnesota, Iowa Without Power

By Thomas Content, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Feb. 27–Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison was working to restore power to tens of thousands of customers after weekend storms caused heavy damage to power lines across Iowa and southern Minnesota.

Although the storm didn’t live up to its billing in eastern Wisconsin, it delivered a wallop to much of Iowa. The powerful combination of ice, heavy snow and gusting winds snapped power poles across the state.

The storm damaged or destroyed at least 2,000 power poles, felling 1,000 miles of power lines, according to Alliant, the parent company of Interstate Power & Light in Iowa and Wisconsin Power & Light Co. in Madison.

The damage was widespread.

“When we experience damage from other natural events such as tornadoes, it is usually localized,” said Vern Gebhart, vice president of customer operations at Interstate Power & Light in Cedar Rapids. “The damage from this storm is some of the worst our utility has ever seen.”

Alliant said more than 170,000 customers were without power, nearly one-third of all the company’s customers in Iowa and Minnesota.

As of Monday afternoon, 53,000 customers were still without power. Many customers will be without power for three days, and for some, it will be a week or more before electricity is restored, Alliant spokesman Scott Smith said.

WP&L is sending 65 people and several pieces of equipment, Smith said. Crews from WP&L were dispatched to Iowa, as well as crews from South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.

In addition, 21 trucks were en route to Iowa from across the country Monday with replacement poles for the transmission system.

There were more poles heading to Iowa “than we have used in construction in the last two years, and we’re going to need even more than that,” Gebhart said.

So many poles were en route Monday that they created traffic backups in Marshalltown, in central Iowa, one of the hardest-hit areas, Gebhart said.

Alliant wasn’t the only utility to be hit. MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines, Iowa, also was working to restore service to its customers Monday.

As part of that effort, We Energies of Milwaukee planned to send a team of 35 people to the Quad Cities area to help MidAmerican restore power. The We Energies team is to leave for Iowa today from Delafield, spokesman Barry McNulty said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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