Hoping for the best
Capital Electric - July 1, 2011
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Losing electric service may mean losing their homes to the rising river for many members across the Capital Electric service area. Capital members Stacy Tschider and Mike Odegaard (pictured) are two of the countless homeowners who have worked hard to sandbag and protect their property using sump pumps to keep water from filling their homes' lower levels. For now, they can still use ATVs to traverse submerged roads to check pumps and water levels around the entire area. They have planned for the worst but are still hoping for the best. "We're doing our best to keep the water out and we're going to be in it for the long haul," says Tschider. "We think our dikes will hold up and as long as we can pump water, we will keep things dry." |
At Capital Electric's annual meeting, the main message was flooding and electrical safety. The co-op has nearly 1,000 accounts which lie outside of the protective county and city levees. Lars Nygren, general manager of Capital Electric, advised consumers who live in the flood-affected areas that the cooperative recognizes members will need power to run pumps for surface or ground water. However, the co-op has and will have many more flooded facilities such as transformers, vacuum fault interrupters and miles of underground conductor.
"We know the transformers can continue to work under water. We also know these same transformers can fail and there is no way to restore service. If a storm or equipment failure knocks out power where our equipment is flooded, we may be unable to restore service until the flood waters have receded. Therefore, it is prudent for individual members to have a standby generator that they can turn to in order to run pumps or whatever else they need," stated Nygren.
"We are also aware that access to your home may become impossible and you may not be able to start a standby power source. We know you need power, and we desire to keep it on, but understand with the flood, we may be in a situation where we cannot restore the power you need."
Capital Electric commends the spirit of the homeowners and volunteers who continue to face this disaster. We are committed to keeping the power on as long as possible, unless we are asked to discontinue service by city officials. For more information on flood preparedness, standby generators and evacuation instructions, visit the co-op's home page or call us at (701) 223-1513 and we'll do our best to answer them.
Avoid electrical hazards around water
• Do NOT go into the basement if your basement is flooded. Call Capital Electric at (701) 223-1513 and we will disconnect the electrical service.
• Keep outlets covered and dry.
• Keep cords and plugs away from water. Never handle electrical items, plugs or outlets when wet. If an electrical product falls into water, do not try to retrieve it by reaching into the water. Make sure you are dry and not in contact with water or metal surfaces, and unplug it immediately or shut off the circuit powering the item.
• Protect your outlets near water with a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). By detecting ground faults-an unintentional electric path between a source of current and a grounded surface; essentially, current leaking to the ground-a GFCI protects you from severe or fatal electric shocks. It can also prevent some electrical fires.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When a person gets immersed in an isolated body of water, the water could become electrified without involving a ground fault as the electric current passes through water (and perhaps a person) from one electrical pole to the opposite pole. In this case, the GFCI may not provide shock or electrocution protection.