Power crews preparing for possible outages

The strong winds in this latest round of winter weather has the potential to cause power outages. Minnesota Power has crews at the ready to be dispatched all across the Northland.

“Minnesota Power crews, and also Superior, Water, Light & Power crews are seasoned and professionals, and they are well-versed in responding to outages during a winter storm, and to preparing in the face of a winter storm,” explained Amy Rutledge, the Director of Corporate Communications for Minnesota Power. “Crews have been gearing up their trucks, making sure they have all the necessary equipment on hand.”

Recalling the wet and heavy snow that fell in December, Minnesota Power took efforts to mitigate the impacts of this storm.

“We saw all of those trees from that wet, heavy snow and the winds that came down in that I-35 corridor near Hinckley. We did a great deal of proactive tree trimming and tree removal of the vegetation that was really threatening our power lines. shared Rutledge. “For folks in the Duluth-area especially, you may have seen those tree trimmers out in the last couple weeks, actively and proactively either trimming trees, or removing trees that really threatened to come down on our power lines. And through that, we’re really mitigating the number of potential outages, and hopefully the duration as well.”

Minnesota Power covers over 145,000 customers across Northeastern Minnesota, in addition to Superior Water, Light & Power on the Wisconsin side. The company is asking customers to be patient if their power goes out, as crews may encounter icy roads which could delay overall response.

“We’re asking our customers to be prepared. We’re preparing for potential outages, customers can also prepare,” explained Rutledge. “Have flashlights, have candles on hand. Make sure you have warm clothing, check your secondary heat source now. If you haven’t had a fire in your chimney for a while, make sure that’s in working order.”

Minnesota Power, Superior Water, Light & Power, and Lake Country Power all have interactive outage maps showing real-time changes.