Electric utilities across Nebraska made progress Sunday in restoring service after storms that knocked down trees and power lines on Friday.
The Omaha Public Power District, which described the storms as the worst in years, had 188,000 customers without power at one point – its largest outage from a storm since June 2008.
Fewer than 60,000 customers were still without electricity by midday Sunday, but OPPD officials said it could take several days to restore electricity to everyone
Nebraska Public Power District had about 8,500 customers without power at the peak, but had restored service all but about 330 – most of those in Plattsmouth, where all customers should have power by the end of the day on Monday.
Restoration work will begin today on 345-kv transmission line between Grand Island and McCool that had 84 structures collapse during the storm. NPPD rerouted the electric load shortly after the line was lost.
Wires from the transmission line west of Aurora fell across Interstate 80, Hwy 14, and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. All were cleared and reopened by Saturday afternoon.