On Wednesday, June 15th between 5 and 6 p.m. a severe thunderstorm watch and tornado warning was issued for Waushara County. The storm sent most residents to the basement or a sheltered room to wait out the storm that hit Wautoma about 5:30. Damage to trees, utility poles, was extensive as well as some structure damage.
Thousands lost power and Alliant Energy and Adams-Columbia Electric Cooperative responded immediately. Some of their travel was halted because of tree covered roadways. As of press time, both electric companies reported power had been restored. There are some properties that sustained structural damage and power to those will be restored when structures are repaired. Waushara County Highway Department was called out to clear roads.
The Waushara County Highway Department was called out around 6:30 PM Wednesday. “We had 15 employees called in and they worked for approximately 4 hrs. to clean debris off the roads. Thursday, we sent all employees out to get trees and branches farther off the road and any spots that may have had power lines thru them Wednesday night. We still have debris in the ditch’s and will be cleaning that up as time allows,” said Brian Freimark, Commissioner, Waushara County Highway Department.
Alliant Energy
As of June 20th, all customers in Waushara County have power available to them. Over 5,000 Alliant Energy customers in Waushara County were without power soon after the storm.
As soon as it was safe to do so right after the storm, crews began assessing damage and working to restore services. Crews worked around the clock – as quickly and safely as possible – until all customers had power available to them.
Alliant Energy prepared resources prior to the storm and was ready to respond to the widespread storm that caused outages throughout the state.
In total, about 80 individuals assisted in the restoration for Waushara County. This included local crews and additional crews that were called in from other parts of the state. Crews from Mineral Point, Janesville and Verona all traveled to assist with the restoration in Waushara County.
The storm knocked down about 20 poles in the area. There was a considerable amount of damage to trees. Trees needed to be removed from some roads in order for trucks to drive on.
Alliant is so proud of the efforts of the crews to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
Adams-Columbia Electric Cooperative
An update as of 7:45 a.m. on Friday, June 17 was reported. Crews and office staff started the day at 5:00 a.m. to discuss the current status of outages and work to complete. There were 97 outages, which included 698 services. Approximately 16 poles needed to be changed out and there were some services that could not be energized until the member made repairs to their equipment.
Line crews devised a plan to break into teams nears the Brooks, Richford, Spring Lake, and Wild Rose areas. The goal was to have most outages restored by midday June 17. One team was working on individual outages near the Columbus area.
As of 10:30 a.m. June 17, ACEC was down to roughly 450 outages. Crews did a great job making progress. As of 12:30 p.m. June 18, all storm related outages had been restored and any remaining outages were related to members who needed to have repairs done to their equipment before ACEC could energize.
ative’s restoration efforts.
A look at a timeline that was released daily and in some cases a couple times a day by ACEC.
Update as of 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15:
The current total number of outages is roughly 6,300. Crews have reported numerous broke poles and downed trees and power lines. Current estimated time of restoral is sometime tomorrow (Thursday, June 16, 2022).
Update as of 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 16:
Roughly 4,100 members of Adams-Columbia Electric Cooperative (ACEC) are still without power, mostly across Adams, Marquette, and Waushara counties. ACEC crews worked through the night on a rotating schedule and are still working to restore power. Transmission lines have been repaired and outages caused from transmission are now ACEC’s system for restoral.
Assessment of damage is still being conducted. Currently, the worst damage appears to be south of Friendship, heading east near Richford and through the south side of Wautoma. Winds of 60-80 miles per hour caused broken poles and cross arms, trees on lines, and damage to homes. Due to some extensive property damage, it’s likely that some individual properties will not be able to safely be restored power until home repairs are made.
ROPE (Restoration of Power in an Emergency) crews have been requested and are on their way to assist in restoration efforts.
•6 linemen from Clark Electric Cooperative
•2 linemen from Eau Claire Energy Cooperative
•2 linemen from Riverland Electric Cooperative
•4 linemen from Jackson Electric Cooperative
•2 linemen from Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative
•Crews from Zielies Tree Services are on standby
The goal was to have the majority of power outages restored by late evening on Thursday, June 16. Work on additional power outages would be resumed first thing Friday morning. All crews from other electric cooperatives had arrived by Thursday afternoon and were working with ACEC crews. They would be staying the night and would continue work the next morning as well.
ACEC appreciated their member’s patience as crews worked as safely and quickly as possible to restore power.
Crews were working in shifts to provide continuous work on restoring power outages. At that time crews were working on restoring power outages that were impacting the most members, starting from the largest outages, and working their way down to the smaller ones. After that, crews would work on restoring individual power outages.
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A Wautoma resident came home to a tree that had fallen on one of his cars following the June 15 storm.