Power being restored to Northwest Kansas

JENNINGS -- The mayor of Jennings doesn't know whether to celebrate with a hot toddy or just crawl into bed for a long winter's nap.

Mayor Bob Jones, his village board members and a group of volunteers have sheltered and fed Jennings residents and stranded travelers since the ice and snow of a blizzard dropped power lines and snapped power poles -- leaving the Jennings area without electricity since Sunday evening.

"Our power's back on," Jones said, breathing a sigh of relief and near-exhaustion, about three o'clock Thursday afternoon.

Jones initiated the community's emergency preparedness plan Sunday evening when the electricity went off in howling winds and blinding snow. Several council members started calling everybody in town and the surrounding area, while others started generators and coffee pots as they turned the senior center into an emergency shelter.

Volunteers -- always traveling in at least pairs, in at least two vehicles -- brought the town's residents and rural residents to the shelter and plucked stranded travelers off the highways.

Jones said they housed and fed anywhere from 30 to 42 people -- morning, noon and night -- until Thursday afternoon. Jones said he was grateful that Merle Snyder had opened a grocery store in Jennings earlier this year, as the village ran a tab there to prepare food for meals. Several residents prepared food at their homes and brought it to the shelter. Some travelers left food at the shelter before they went on their ways, Jones said.

The mother who had a C-section delivery of her second baby scheduled Dec. 1 did not go into labor while staying at the shelter, Jones said. "Boy, we couldn't have handled that too," he laughed.

Jones was proud of his council's implementation of the emergency preparedness plan and his of community's response to the emergency situations that arose.

"It was a community effort ... small-town community spirit," Jones said Thursday afternoon as he and volunteers cleaned the community center and washed dishes and coffee cups, and firefighters helped haul water to cattle in pastures.

"We're waiting for the next one," Jones said, mulling over the forecast calling for snow this weekend. "We're not taking the beds out."

Near 7,500 without power

North winds tearing across the Kansas plains Sunday and Monday snapped and splintered power poles and cross arms trying to hold up the weight of power lines encased in three to four inches of ice and packed snow.

"Those 70-mile-an-hour winds were pretty tough," said Bob Helm, public relations director for Midwest Energy Inc., the provider of power for 42 counties in Kansas. Midwest lost between 150 and 200 poles and 155 cross arms, disrupting power to 5,000 to 7,500 customers, some for a couple hours, others for several days.

Helm said Midwest lost 24 poles on one 15-mile stretch, and linemen encountered roads blocked by eight- to 10-foot snow drifts.

Caterpillars and county maintainers helped clear roads and pull utility trucks into areas that needed attention.

"We're getting closer to normal," Helm said, although, he added, there are some isolated areas still without power.

Allan MIller, general manager of Prairie Land Rural Electric Cooperative, based in Norton, said they lost more than 500 poles in the two-day storm.

"We're getting things up temporarily," to get power to customers as soon as they can, he said. Permanent repairs will be made as time allows. "We're hoping to have people all on by the weekend," Miller said.

The worst parts of the storm were the high winds and the freezing rain and ice that broke lines and snapped poles, Miller said.

"We sustained $1 1/2 to 2 million in damage."

Linemen from Topeka, Salina, Scott City and Tribune in Kansas and Grand Island and McCook in Nebraska are helping Prairie Land linemen made repairs.

"We helped McCook several years ago when it was hit with a really bad storm," Miller said.

"I guess it was our turn."