January ice storm tests men, machines at McKenzie Electric

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COOPERATIVE EFFORT restores power for members When the frost started building on the trees, fences and power lines, the operations department at McKenzie Electric Cooperative didn’t see the calendar-worthy beauty in the picture. They knew those frosted lines could mean potential outages throughout the system. And they were right. During the week of Jan. 17, frost was heavy on the lines and trees. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, freezing rains came and the frost turned to ice. The winds joined the fun and were soon howling between 20 and 45 miles per hour. That’s when the lines began to snap and the poles began to break. And that’s when the first calls from members reporting power outages came in. As if that combination wasn’t enough, a blizzard was gathering power and hit the area late Saturday night, adding to the chaos through Monday, Jan. 25. After C2—McKENZIE ELECTRIC NEWS • MARCH 2010 that, the sun came out, but the temperature continued in the minus numbers for the rest of the week. “When I heard the forecast, I said to my wife, ‘We’re looking at a disaster for MEC,’ but we got lucky; we were right on the edge of the storm,” said Rick Pokrzywinski, a lineworker with 25 years experience at McKenzie Electric Cooperative (MEC). Pokrzywinski has worked through at least six major ice storms in his career, and he still remembers the ice storm of October 2005 as the worst for damages and time getting things back in order. “The ice storm of 2005 was more widespread in our area, but this ice storm was the coldest I’ve ever experienced. It’s unusual to have an ice storm in January; they usually come in March. The extreme cold made it hard to work through this one,” he said. But Rick and the rest of the line crew, The farmers and ranchers were there to help plow roads for the lineworkers and to help in any way they could. joined by the engineering department, worked day and night from that Wednesday through the weekend and into the next week to get the power restored to all the members of MEC, a cooperative that takes in all of two counties and parts of three others. Steve Lautenschlager, operations manager, has worked during many ice storms in his 28 years with MEC, but this was the first as operations supervisor and overseeing all the men and equipment working during the storm. “To say that our men did a great job is an understatement. They worked through the night that first Wednesday night right on into Thursday and Thursday night. I brought them in early on Friday night so everyone could get some rest. After that, we tried to get them in after 14 or 16 hours and on Sunday the weather was so bad, I made
them come in by dark. The blizzard was so bad then it was dangerous for them to be out after dark,” he said. “On Monday, they were out again and by Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 11:30 p.m., we had the last member back on. Or so we thought. We found out later that there was one more household that didn’t have power. They were back on the next day,” he said. The longest that any member was out of power for one stretch was from midnight Friday to the following Tuesday. John Skurupey, general manager/chief executive officer of MEC, said the members of the co-op were great. “The members who called in understood what was going on and what our guys were doing. In most cases, they just wanted to know when the power might come back on. The farmers and ranchers were there to help plow out roads for our guys and to help in any way they could.” Skurupey also had high praise for Lautenschlager and the men from the operations and engineering departments. “Steve did a phenomenal job. He was manning two radios, a phone and a cell phone most of the time through the storm. He remained positive throughout the whole time and his organization was amazing. He kept track of where all the men were, both our men and the contractors we called in, where the outages were as the calls came in, and he got it all documented as well.” Skurupey had praise for the men as well. “I know the quality of the men we have and it showed during the storm. The members recognized their efforts as well. I’ve had many calls and e-mails thanking the line crew for their fast response, their dedication to the job and their neverstop attitude,” he said. Lautenschlager explained that one of the reasons that MEC had such a fast response to outages throughout the area was that the co-op was in construction mode and had two contractors working for the co-op when the storm hit. “Between the two contractors, we had about 30 men and their machines that could build lines for us. We didn’t have to go looking for more help. Along with the 20 men from MEC, we were in better shape than many of our neighboring coops and able to get members back on power fairly soon,” he said. The equipment has improved over the years as well. “The snowcats saved us this storm,” Pokrzywinski said. “The fourwheel-drive bucket trucks were great as well.” Lautenschlager added that MEC Poles were down as far as the eye could see along the Kelling line northwest of Killdeer in Dunn County. was demonstrating a large four-wheeldrive bucket truck when the storm hit. “This truck has a bucket that can reach to the top of a 65-foot pole. In fact, we used it to help (the Western Area Power Administration) repair one of their big transmission lines. That line serves the Mountain substation about 15 miles north of Killdeer. The truck was also able to park on the road and work some of the lines right from the road. It passed the test and we bought it,” he said. The storm hit hardest in the southern part of McKenzie County and in Dunn County. More than 100 poles were broken during the storm. The worst area was just east of the Charlie Creek substation at the junction of Highway 85 and Highway 200. More than 30 poles were down in a really rugged area. One of the contracting crews worked on that project from Friday morning to Tuesday afternoon. Just when they would have the new poles in, more poles would break. About 588 households were out of power at some time during the storm. Some of those were out for only a short time while others went without power for much of the storm. Storm damage was estimated at about $500,000, but that number was expected to go up as the cleanup continued. While many of the men were wellexperienced in working through an ice storm, this was the first one for Rick Jore, a field staking engineer who has been with MEC for three years. “It was a great experience to work in the field with the line crew. I learned a lot about location of lines and what it’s like to work in those conditions.” The line crew, Lautenschlager and Skurupey all talked about the great cooperation from Dunn and McKenzie counties and several local contractors who were there to move snow for the men to reach the lines, as well as the farmers and ranchers. John summed it up by saying, “It was a cooperative effort to get the power on for the members.” Thank you to all who helped, but especially to the line crew who were and always are the front lines in any power outage. MARCH 2010 • McKENZIE ELECTRIC NEWS—C3 McKENZIE ELECTRIC
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January ice storm tests men, machines at McKenzie Electric

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