Snowstorm knocks out power to 14,000

A heavy blanket of snow caused a power outage to more than half of the service area of Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative (HOEC) last week. Overnight on Jan. 24, snow fell in some places in Howell County ten inches deep. The heavy, wet snowfall wreaked havoc on electrical lines and tree limbs. On Wednesday morning, HOEC announced 56% of their membership was without power. Approximately 14,262 out of 25,374 had no electricity following the storm. HOEC linemen began work immediately, but the massive scale of the problem prompted the co-op to activate their mutual assistance agreement with neighboring entities.

As phones rang off the hook, HOEC released frequent statements with updates on Facebook. “As with any emergency situation, we must plan for the worst and hope for the best,” read one such statement. “With additional crews working the outage, we hope to restore power in a timely manner, but what Mother Nature created in a few short hours, takes our lineman time to identify the issue, make any corrections, which might include moving downed trees and limbs and getting the lines back in working order in a safe manner. With this being said, HOEC is planning on this effort to carry on multiple days. We urge our members to make the appropriate accommodations.” 

According to HOEC, approximately 61,000 utility customers statewide lost power in the storm. By Thursday morning, the outages were reduced to “just more than 11,000,” HOEC reported. Around half of their members in their six-county service area had been without power longer than a day. Crews from five different Missouri cooperatives responded to the area Wednesday night, adding 39 additional linemen and 16 contractors to the workforce dealing with mud, fallen trees, and slick roads. By Friday morning, HOEC reported “significant gains.” Total outages fell to 4,900 members. More linemen had responded to the area to assist, increasing the workforce to about 120. Saturday morning dawned with 936 members without power. By 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 28., HOEC reported all members had power restored. The longest outages had lasted approximately 60 hours.

Mutual assistance crews responded from Callaway Electric Cooperative, Co-Mo Electric Cooperative, Intercounty Electric Cooperative, Ozark Electric Cooperative, Southwest Electric Cooperative, Three Rivers Electric Cooperative, White River Valley Electric Cooperative and Kiowa Line Builders.