NORTHWOOD, N.D. - As darkness fell Friday night, more than half the homes in Northwood had power restored, said City Administrator Marcy Douglas. "And 90 percent of the (electrical) distribution system is up and cleared, which is huge progress by this time."
Now it's mostly down to checking home by home to see what needs to be done to get the rest hooked up, Douglas said.
By 8 p.m. Friday, 225 of the city's houses and 24 apartment units had been re-connected to electrical hook-ups. "That's 54 percent," of the city's 460 homes, Douglas said. Electrical workers found more problems than expected, because some houses that seemed OK at first needed more electrical work to effect the hook-up, she said.
"I think, systemwide, we're still looking at having most everyone being up by next Wednesday," Douglas said.
Residents need to contact City Hall to notify them they do not have power, Douglas said. Teams also have gone door to door to spread that message, she said. Meanwhile, the pace of hauling debris out of the city slowed at the end of the week as most of the heavy cleanup is completed, according to numbers provided by Douglas.
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After five days, 2,549 truck loads of tree and building debris had been hauled to Northwood's inert landfill four miles west of town, Douglas said. Only 145 loads were hauled Friday, after 551 on Thursday and more than 800 on Tuesday. With several larger commercial buildings to be torn down, the city is taking a look at where such debris should be taken, Douglas said. The large, old and tall wooden seed plant began being torn down Friday, and after a few truckloads were hauled to the landfill, officials put a halt to that and for now will leave the seed plant's debris at the site, Douglas said.
Reach Lee at (701) 780-1237 or at slee@gfherald.com .
