Homepage
Related Photos
-
Randy Franck puts gasoline into a tractor to power a generator on the Lee Barber Farm near DeWitt on Tuesday. The generator is being used to supply electricity to the barn for milking the farm's dairy cows. Power lost from the weekend's ice storm was not yet restored Tuesday evening. Jerry Dahl/Clinton Herald
Discussion
REC still struggling to repair storm damage
WILTON — Eastern Iowa Light and Power Coop crews continue to work 16-hour days this week, struggling to bring electricity back to rural farms and homes that have been without power since a winter storm struck the area Friday.
In Clinton County, dairymen like Lee Barber scrambled to find enough generators to get the milking done and pump water for thirsty cows.
Daniel Smicker, vocational agriculture teacher at Central DeWitt High School, said he has “a barn full of baby lambs and a whole bunch of ewes that are in the middle of lactating for them. If they quit milking, I’m either bottle feeding a hundred lambs or I’ve got dead sheep. The ewes have got to have water in order to make milk.”
He was preparing to haul water from town, but he was lucky — his electricity was one of the first restored in this area.
Other farmers, who had pigs in environmentally controlled confinement buildings, had only a few hours to find generators or face the death of many of the animals.
“We’re kind of victims of our own efficiency,” Smicker said. “We’re so efficient with our buildings that one person can take care of huge amounts of livestock. But when you get into a situation like this, you can actually lose the animals.
“It used to be you could open a fence and let everything go down to the creek to drink. But you can’t do that any more. And we don’t have a windmill any more to pump water out on the ground and let the animals drink.”
Meanwhile, rural neighborliness was alive and well this week as volunteer fire departments and farm businesses with tankers began hauling water to area farms that were still without electricity.
“The REC is working as fast as they can,” Smicker said. “But when you’ve got miles and miles of lines down and multiple breaks in the lines, you can only go so fast.”
150 linemen expected on job today
More than 800 power poles were broken and about 12,500 members of the Eastern Iowa Light and Power Coop were without electricity when the company completed a damage survey in the wake of last weekend’s winter storm, according to Jim Williams, information director.
Local crews have worked 16-hour days since then and have been joined by personnel from three rural electric coops in Missouri, about 30 contract linemen from Michigan and crews from the cities of Wilton and Durant, he said.
Today, 40 contract linemen from Indiana were expected to arrive, making the total number of personnel about 150.
Eastern Iowa Light and Power Coop, a part of the REC system, is strictly a rural power company, according to Williams.
“We serve an area from just south of Maquoketa all the way to Burlington and west to Iowa City,” he said. “That includes all of Clinton, Scott, Cedar, Des Moines, Louisa and Muscatine counties and portions of Jackson, Jones, Johnson, Henry and Washington counties.
“As of Monday, all of our main feeder lines were energized, except for a small portion around the Tipton area, and we have restored power to all but 2,600 of those effected by the storm
“Now the crews are moving out into the secondary lines and that takes a bit longer. The work they do doesn’t pick up as many members as when you pick up a main feeder line. But we expect the work to be completed this weekend.
“We didn’t have a lot of damage in northern Clinton County or Jackson and Jones Counties. The damage was really concentrated from Highway 30 south. We’re bringing in all the help we can. It just takes time, with the nature of our service territory.”
- Local News
-
-
Dorms to replace Frontier
The Best Western Frontier Inn will be closing its doors to the public, if a purchase agreement between its owners and Ashford University goes through at the end of the month.
- Armed robbery reported at bank
- Child injured after being struck by car
- Spontaneous combustion causes bin fire
- DeWitt leaders tour Central District’s new construction
-
Dorms to replace Frontier
- Opinion
-
-
Week-long learning session comes to an end
I took a brief break this week from my excitement of football season approaching and focused on being a single parent.
- Bielema: Sewer billing freeze has merits, but must be fair to all
- I’m ready for some football
-
Week-long learning session comes to an end
- Lifestyles
-
-
MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR: Deb Olson is leading Clinton's schools
Clinton School District’s new interim superintendent, Deb Olson, 51, of Clinton, has been educating students in Clinton for 26 years.
-
Work continues to expedite court services
Members of the Clinton County Justice Coordinating Committee discussed ways it has expedited court cases and issues that still need to be resolved during a review of annual goals Thursday.
-
MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR: Deb Olson is leading Clinton's schools
- Obituaries
- Sports
-
-
Heinemann's Hawktalk
Hawkeye correspondent Brian Heinemann talks Iowa football
- Franks wins title at Schoolhouse Open cross country meet
- Peoria's big comeback trips LumberKings
-
Heinemann's Hawktalk
- Features
-
-
Remembering Kylee
Kylee Hyde was a fun, kind, caring person who liked to help people. Now her family and friends are working to help students in Kylee’s honor.
-
Remembering Kylee
- AP story section
-
-
More problems for Lake Delhi
Cities downstream of the Lake Delhi dam are struggling with tons of silt washed away last month when flooding caused the structure to fail and drain the lake in northeast Iowa, a state official said.
- Iowa foreclosures rate hit record in 2nd quarter
- Parents need to volunteer in schools
-
More problems for Lake Delhi
