FARGO
Utility companies in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota were busy Thursday restoring electricity to customers who lost power when heavy snow downed tree branches onto power lines.
Cass County Electric Co-op responded to more than 40 outages scattered across seven counties west of North Dakota Highway 18 Wednesday night and Thursday morning, spokeswoman Carrie Joyce said.
"Those 40 different places need to be fixed, instead of just one as usual," she said.
About 250 customers lost power, and the co-op hoped to have service restored to all of them by Thursday night, she said. Tree contractors helped remove the downed branches, she said.
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Barnes County Sheriff Gene Bjerke said intermittent power outages affected roughly 1,500 customers in and around Valley City, N.D., where 7.5 inches of wet, heavy snow fell.
Snow-covered branches pushed against power lines, shorting them out and blowing transformers, he said.
By noon Thursday, electricity was flowing to all but a handful of the 350 customers of Dakota Valley Electric Co-op who lost power in an area stretching from Edgeley, N.D., to Wyndmere, N.D., spokeswoman Kathy Rysavy said.
Wild Rice Electric Co-op manager Steve Haaven said it was hard to get a handle on how customers lost power because they were so scattered.
The co-op's service area covers parts of Minnesota's Becker, Clay, Mahnomen, Norman and Polk counties.
The outages included lines to homes as well as main lines, Haaven said.
After Valley City's 7.5 inches, the next highest North Dakota snow totals reported to the National Weather Service were 6 inches in Lisbon and Litchville, 4.8 inches in Sarles and 4 inches in Chaffee and Sharon. Pelican Rapids led Minnesota cities with 3.6 inches.
The Associated Press contributed to this article. The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead and the Herald are Forum Communications Co. newspapers.
