LINCOLN — Lincoln Electric System has deployed staff and vehicles to help Omaha Public Power District with power restoration efforts after the July 31 storm caused historic outages in the area.
Three crews comprised of 16 LES employees left for Omaha on the morning of Aug. 5. On the evening of July 31, rain, lightning and damaging winds caused widespread power outages throughout Lincoln, Omaha and surrounding areas. At the situation's peak, over 200,000 customers experienced power outages in OPPD's service area. The utility has reported that it is OPPD's largest power outage in history.
As of 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 5, OPPD reports that 27,650 customers remain without power. LES' mutual aid support comes less than a day after LES completed its storm restoration efforts.
"Our crews have worked around the clock since Wednesday evening to restore power throughout the LES service area," said Paul Crist, LES vice president of Energy Delivery. "After five long, hot days of very labor-intensive work, I'm proud to have crew members who want to keep at it. They don't want a day off — they want our neighbors in Omaha to get their power back on."
Although all LES customers have had their power restored, LES crews are still working to replace broken poles, remove trees from power lines and clean up remaining damage throughout the LES area. LES is also fully equipped to address any additional outages as needed.
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