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Hastings Utilities reports nearly 5,000 customers out at peak during March 19 blizzard; crews logged hundreds of hours restoring service
Summary
Utility staff reviewed the March 19 blizzard response: outages peaked at about 5,000 customers, crews logged more than 400 hours in a single workday, two 1971 breakers failed at Don Henry substation and staff relied on back‑feed and mutual‑aid to restore service over several days.
Noel, a utilities staff member, presented a detailed outage summary to the Hastings Utility Board on April 10 describing the department’s response to the March 19 blizzard.
Noel said the first storm‑related outage calls arrived about 2:30 a.m., and outages peaked shortly after 9 a.m. with “about 5,000 customers out on 2 net.” He told the board the utility has roughly 14,500 total customers. Crews staged for safety and initially did not send crews into rural areas because roads became impassable; crews concentrated on restoring large feeders and back‑feeding where possible.
“By 1:30 in the afternoon, we were down to 2,000 customers without power,” Noel said, describing how crews back‑fed feeders and worked to isolate damaged sections. He described major damage in the Junietta area, including broken poles on a primary feed and damage to a Don Henry substation breaker that "basically imploded." Noel said two 13,800‑volt breakers at the Don Henry substation failed; those breakers are vintage equipment already scheduled for replacement in a future budget cycle.
Noel said crews used GIS, SCADA and AMI mapping to prioritize repairs, and that other departments — water and gas — helped by clearing roads, delivering poles and preparing holes. Water‑department crews cleared DLD Road so line crews could access damage; gas staff delivered poles and assisted with vacuuming pole holes.
The March storm produced an unusually large number of unplanned breaker cycles, Noel said: SCADA reported 372 unplanned breaker cycles on March 19, compared with under 100 total cycles in prior years’ full years. He said 36 individual breakers cycled during the event and the highest‑cycling breaker operated 52 times in 24 hours.
Noel reported that line crews have since replaced more than 20 poles and that the majority of the system was returned to normal on April 4 after replacing damaged breakers and bus connectors. The utility sent a four‑man crew with buckets and a skid loader to provide mutual aid to Fremont and said the city will be reimbursed for wages and equipment.
Board members asked about employee safety and staffing limits. Noel said the utility follows a nonunion policy target of 16‑hour work periods during outages and a hard limit of 24 hours followed by eight hours off; mutual‑aid deployments also use 16‑hour workdays and are voluntary.
Ending: Staff said the department will continue incremental infrastructure replacements, highlighted the role of preventative maintenance and noted that the Don Henry switchgear upgrade is budgeted for a future cycle.
