General

‘Everyone really came together’ to restore power after tornado

Steve Weaver drove past tornado wreckage in Bennington on Friday afternoon, counting downed power poles as he went.

Minutes earlier, a massive EF-3 twister had plowed through a neighborhood close to his house, carving miles of destruction and destroying the home of a close family friend.

But Weaver, an OPPD working line crew leader, wasn’t there to gawk. As quickly as he could, he gathered critical information to relay to OPPD’s dispatchers before he reported to work. Around him was a mess of broken poles, bent poles on the verge of falling, and live wires – a very real public safety threat. He had to act fast.

“Our first job is to protect the public,” Weaver said. “Our second job is to get the power back on.”

Faced with massive tornado damage and outages affecting 10,204 customers, OPPD’s Storm Team and workers jumped into action with a coordinated response honed through years of experience.

With help from every department and mutual aid assistance, OPPD restored power to 95% of customers within 48 hours. By Tuesday, every customer who was still able to receive electricity was back in service. Mutual aid crews from Nebraska Public Power District and Fremont Department of Utilities helped, as did several OPPD contractors: the L.E. Myers Co., Watts Electric Company and High Voltage.

A massive response

Other departments across the company worked diligently to assist customers whose homes were damaged or destroyed, and to keep customers and elected officials updated on restoration progress.

“I want to thank everyone for their tremendous work,” said Chris Angland, OPPD’s director of Electric Grid Operations. “This was a terrific team effort, and everyone at OPPD stepped up to serve the community.”

Other groups played pivotal roles, as well.

The National Weather Service in Valley provided early, ongoing coverage of the storms, enabling many to take cover before tornadoes hit their areas.

The response after the storms was swift and massive, with assistance coming from numerous sources, including: the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, Douglas County, the City of Omaha, law enforcement agencies, and various nonprofits and businesses.

Citizen volunteers also sprang into action, providing a variety of assistance.

The storm damaged 943 homes in Douglas County, including 173 that were destroyed.

Challenges in the field

The tornado that hit Elkhorn, Bennington and Blair cut a 31-mile path through eastern Nebraska, with winds up to 165 mph. The National Weather Service in Valley tallied 19 tornadoes in its coverage area that traveled a combined 201.7 miles.

Five were rated EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 136 mph to 165 mph – the strongest to strike eastern Nebraska in nearly 10 years. Two were classified as EF-2, eight were EF-1-rated, three were EF-0, and one is still unknown.

The storms created several big challenges that OPPD teams had to overcome. Scattered debris was one. So were the muddy, sloppy fields near power poles. Some crews had to use bulldozers to pull their bucket trucks into position to make repairs.

“It’s just amazing, the work they did out in the field,” said Eli Schiessler, manager of OPPD’s Elkhorn Service Center. “The team did a great job there.”

The first crews to arrive worked a 36-hour shift to fix as much as they could, as quickly as possible, followed by night shift teams.

As they worked, dozens of others behind the scenes kept them fed, tracked their locations, updated the public on their progress and guided the outside mutual aid crews that arrived to help.

Support from the public

The public was hugely supportive as well, bringing pizzas, doughnuts and sandwiches to field workers. On one doughnut box, residents scrawled a note that referenced their location in OPPD’s distribution network: “Thank you! Love – Circuit 333.”

“The public was very understanding, even the customers who were out for several days,” said Sean Lane, field supervisor at OPPD’s Papillion Service Center. “I think they understood that this was a major effort.”

Schiessler said OPPD did a good job of using many different departments with skillsets that aided the restoration, including meter technicians, cable splicers and underground construction crews.

OPPD also activated its damage assessment teams to survey the destruction, helping crews prepare for what they would encounter at different sites. Guides known in the industry as “bird dogs” coordinated with outside mutual aid crews and served as a go-between with OPPD dispatchers.

Aaron Mercer, manager of the Papillion Service Center and a former line technician, said line workers tend to go into “storm mode” – a heightened sense of focus on the task at hand – when responding to weather damage, so it’s important to make sure they’re taking care of themselves.

Crew leaders monitored the teams closely for signs of fatigue, making sure they could safely focus on their jobs, and provided food, water and sports drinks.

Crews also dealt with large crowds initially, requiring extra caution. Crew leaders explained the need for crowds to stand clear and not block traffic as OPPD trucks arrived. Law enforcement barricaded some roads to help. OPPD also coordinated with local school districts to redirect their Monday morning bus routes.

Damage and debris

“We know we have to get the power back on,” said Brian Kramer, OPPD’s senior director of Utility Operations, Maintenance and Construction. “But there was a lot of debris, a lot of obstacles to overcome. The guys in the field handled it really well.”

OPPD’s Storm Team also summoned extra staff resources early, including cable splicers and underground construction crews, Kramer said.

Communication was constant, with field supervisors and others talking to the dispatchers at OPPD’s Energy Control Center, which in turn updated the Southwest Power Pool. The Southwest Power Pool is a regional transmission organization that helps utilities, including OPPD, coordinate with one another to ensure consistent, reliable service on the grid.

In some damaged areas, OPPD set the stage for future development. One neighborhood, for instance, was slated for a road-widening project where power poles would need to be moved anyway, so crews folded that job into their rebuilding work. Kramer credited OPPD engineers for the idea.

OPPD will analyze lessons learned from the storm that can help the utility improve, as it has done for years.

“We always think about the little things,” Mercer said. “What can we do better? I appreciate that. A lot of lessons learned over the years have really helped us build a well-oiled machine.”

A community rallies

Crews in Bennington, Elkhorn and Blair worked through Friday night and all day Saturday. The tornado damage was so severe that several long stretches of distribution line needed to be rebuilt.

Overnight, Weaver, the line crew foreman, compiled a list of everything his team would need. Rain dumped on the crews as they cleared roads, removed damaged poles and installed new ones.

Line technicians replaced 47 poles in just the Bennington area, including 19 that needed new wiring.

By 7 p.m. Sunday, crews had restored power to most of the customers in the area.

On Saturday, residents brought sandwiches and doughnuts. Weaver learned through social media that food trucks were deployed at the high school and got 60 burritos for his crews and the nearby contractors helping in the area.

“I wanted to make sure everybody got something, especially since we were all going home late at night,” he said. “I didn’t feel like cooking at home.”

As a line technician, Weaver has handled hundreds of construction jobs. But working directly for his neighbors in Bennington, and seeing the destruction in his community, was personal. It was inspiring as well, as the community rallied in support.

“I’ve worked for OPPD for 24 years,” he said. “As a foreman on previous storms, I’ve seen damage. This one hit home.”

Of course, every storm is different. Schiessler credited OPPD’s leadership and teams for an organized, focused response.

“Everyone really came together,” he said.