When a storm rolls in Slope Electric Cooperative employees are committed to addressing and restoring outages as soon as it is safe to do so. In late June, Slope Electric’s service area was engulfed in dangerous weather with damaging winds accompanied by hail and thunderstorms. During these conditions vegetation and buildings do not fare well and it will occasionally impact our system as well. While a cooperative can be prepared for storms and utilize technology to identify outages and damage, we would not be able to assess the full impact without our employees and members.

During this storm, a North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network station near Hettinger clocked a 94 mph wind gust with other gusts ranging up to 74 mph. High winds across a vast prairie can do a fair share of damage. Several Slope Electric substations experienced intermittent power bumps, also known as power blinks, due to the weather conditions impacting our system as well as our power supplier’s system. The Amidon Substation transmission line sustained significant equipment damage and was out for 14 hours while crews worked to diligently perform repairs. Dedicated crew members work through the night and into the early morning to restore power to members.

Due to the vast area impacted by the storm stretching from south of Marmarth to east of Hettinger, help was enlisted for restoration efforts. Slope Electric employees as well as contractors from 3C Construction worked to reenergize substations and make repairs for the next several days. The impact to Slope Electric’s system included 27 utility poles in Adams and Bowman counties that needed to be replaced and a large number of broken power wires due to falling trees and flying debris.

We understand that when a storm hits our service area, it impacts everyone from homes, businesses and operations. It is our top priority to restore power back to members in a safe and efficient manner. We are grateful to have understanding members who make these tasks a bit easier from reporting power outages to lending a helping hand to crews in the field. Thank you all once again for your patience and assistance as we worked to navigate the impacts of this storm.