MPR’s Paul Schroeder interviews Jim Holtman, of Runestone Power in Douglas County, about damage done to power lines from ice fog. It began as beautiful hoar frost, but moisture in the air changed over to an icy fog. The lines were quickly coated, then snapped, creating power outages.
SPEAKER 1: I understand that you're hoarse because of all the phone calls you've been taking over the last few days.
SPEAKER 2: Yeah. I was going to apologize for that. I just hope people can understand me.
SPEAKER 1: Well, I think that we're all used to hearing hoarse voices at this time of year. What is the situation there? Is it just because of the fog that's icing up on the lines, that's causing these outages?
SPEAKER 2: Well, that's how it started. And it was rather spectacular. I'm sure everybody in this area saw all the pretty white trees and all of the fences filled in with frost, but that in itself wasn't too bad because it's fairly light.
But later on, there started to be a heavier mist in the air that started to form an ice coating on top of that. I think you would call it hoar frost. And that became very heavy. And then when it would break loose, the lines would snap together and tangle up and burned down a number of other things.
SPEAKER 1: How long has this been going on? Now, you said that some people have been without power since Friday.
SPEAKER 2: I don't think anybody was off that long at any single stretch. I do know some people were off for two or three days, though. It did begin Friday night. And by Saturday, it was a full-fledged mess.
SPEAKER 1: Well, how does the electric co-op deal with this kind of a situation? Do you have to go out and just repair lines individually? Or how do you go about restoring power?
SPEAKER 2: Yeah. There is no other way. They have to chase down each individual problem. And this was such a big problem because one line would have a piece of line would come back on. And as the crew drove away, another piece of ice would fall off and knock it right off again, so many people were off many times. Four or five different outages in this particular period is not unusual.
SPEAKER 1: This is not the time of year that a lot of people want to be working. Are you getting help from other electric cooperatives in the area to keep your staffing up?
SPEAKER 2: Well, not only the co-ops, but we also had help from [INAUDIBLE] Light and Power and then Owatonna Cooperative. The co-op down there came up. We have help from Montevideo. We have a couple crews from Wheaton as well.
I also understand our neighbors in Benson and Wadena and Pelican Rapids also had help come in from other co-ops. So that's not unusual. Power companies tend to help each other out. And all of the people that come were volunteers.
SPEAKER 1: What is going to help this situation?
SPEAKER 2: Well, we're winding down right now. I was just, before you called, trying to get a hold of our crew foreman, but he was still busy. We have a few people off, but cross your fingers and knock on wood and talk to your weather department. Things do seem to be clearing up.
SPEAKER 1: Is it going to help if we get some sunshine, do you think?
SPEAKER 2: Yes. Anything to get that ice off the lines.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Well, good luck to you. I know that it's a very difficult job keeping power on for a lot of people.
SPEAKER 2: Have a lot of good people. And they have been working very hard. And we're just hoping it's over.
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