Busy Night and Day for Utility Companies

It's the Winter that just won't stop giving! On Monday, we hit the 70-degree mark, I could see green grass growing in my yard, and the ice was completely gone. All of that changed Wednesday, when the snow started around 11 am, and came a lot harder than we had thought. Add to that the wind from last night, and it's just a mess.

I got up early this morning and checked social media, as is my norm, while I'm waiting for the coffee to brew. According to the Facebook pages of Steele County Skywarn, and Owatonna Public Utilities, several neighborhoods lost power in town, as well as out of town. There were several updated posts that they were working on getting power restored as quickly as humanly possible. I listened to the ice and hail hit the side of my house, wondering if I was going to get a call that school was cancelled for today. No, but I did get a call that the Owatonna School District decided to delay school by 2 hours this morning,

I am fortunate that my neighborhood doesn't lose power often, but, it did this morning. I live about 6 blocks away from Owatonna Middle School, and since it is still so yucky out there, I gave my daughter a ride to school. We got into the drop-off/pick-up lanes and noticed that there were staff holding the doors open. Yep, no power at the Middle School for the start of a delayed school day. Fortunately, the power did come back on at about 10:15. This is the statement on the District's Facebook page:

Temporary Power Outage: Our Middle School building had a temporary power outage this morning. Power has been restored at 10:15 a.m. and classes will resume as scheduled.

We also received a call stating the same thing. It's a pretty good bet that most of the students at the school have a cell phone, so my daughter let me know when the power was restored, before the phone call from the District. I am just thankful that as messy as it is out there, at least it's not bitterly cold on top of the yuck on the roads.

Many, many thanks to all of the utility crews who are out there making sure that any outage is temporary. Also, thank you to all of law enforcement and first responders who were assisting at the numerous accidents statewide yesterday and again this morning. Read about Roy's challenges getting in to work yesterday, here.