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Big storm hits town [UPDATED]
Published 11:31am Monday, August 6, 2012 Updated 11:31am Monday, August 6, 2012A severe thunderstorm knocked out power to many areas of Fergus Falls and Otter Tail County Friday night.
About 4,600 Lake Region Electric Cooperative customers were without power soon after the storm hit about 8:15 p.m. Friday. By early Saturday, power had been restored to 2,600 with about 2,000 members still without service.
Damage to power lines and poles is extensive, mostly caused by high winds and downed trees and limbs, according to an LREC news release. Crews restored power to as many main lines as possible but will have to return to tap lines and individual locations to clear trees and repair wire. Damage reports include 12 downed transformer poles that will have to be replaced. It may be Saturday evening before power is restored to all of these locations.
14 poles are also down in a main feeder line out of the Roberts substation area west of Barnesville and near Wolverton, MN. Members there will not have their power restored until Saturday evening and are asked to make necessary provisions.
Otter Tail Power also reported an outage in Fergus Falls at 8:20 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. Friday night. Power was restored to Fergus Falls residents soon after the outage.
The storm also delayed by 30 minutes the 8:30 p.m. performance of Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers Friday night at WE Fest.
i’m pretty sure that the power was out from 8:30pm-11:30pm. i wouldn’t call that “shortly after”.
That’s exactly what I was going to say.. It was out for 3 hours!