Friday, Aug. 2, 6:30 a.m.
With help from our mutual aid partners, restoration work continued overnight throughout storm-imapcted areas. This morning, more than 92,000 customers are without power. You’ll notice this number is higher than last night’s reported outages. Keep in mind, these outages may not all be directly related to Wednesday’s storms.
As it stands, the majority of outages, more than 71,000, are in the Douglas County area. Nearly 17,000 are in Sarpy County, and nearly 2,500 are in Saunders County.
OPPD does not prioritize areas of town when it comes to power restoration. Our crews work on repairs that will restore the greatest number of customers first and make their way down to more individual, lengthy repairs.
Our damage assessment teams and troubleshooters continue to work to hone in on more specific estimated restoration times for our customers. We know it’s incredibly difficult to be without power for this long and that you need to know when your power will be back. We are doing our best to bring it back and restore normalcy to your lives.
We want to give our sincere thanks to all our our customers. We are so heartened by the support we’ve seen – from kind words for our crews to neighbors helping neighbors with tree cleanup. We’re really proud to be part of this amazing community.
Remember to be sure to report any new power outages so that we are aware and can respond. You can do that online or at 1-800-554-OPPD (6773). Or use the OPPDconnect app. We’ll keep providing updates here as we have more information for you!
Thursday, Aug. 1, 9:15 p.m. – Crews have made significant progress in their storm restoration efforts as they have restored power to 60% of those who lost power in Wednesday night’s storm beating our estimate of having restored power to 50% of customers by the end of the week. In just over 24 hours our crews and mutual aid partners have restored power to more than 134,000 customers. There are now 86,965 customers without power.
We want to thank our customers for their patience as we continue restoring power to everyone as safely and quickly as possible. We also want to remind people to stay away from downed wires and assume they are live and dangerous.
And a few things to know about damage to a customer’s home service connection:
- Treat every downed power line as a live wire. Stay away from it.
- OPPD will restring a downed line or string a new line as long as there is a clear corridor of air space from the power pole to the point where the wires attach to the house. OPPD crews will untangle lines from fallen trees in most cases, but they will not remove the trees. If a fallen tree has branches creating an obstruction in that air-space corridor, the homeowner should have those branches removed.
- If electrical lines have been torn from your house, or the electric meter or power pole mast attached to your home has been damaged, contact a private electrician to make the repairs. Meter sockets and power masts attached to a house are the responsibility of the homeowner. OPPD is responsible for the wires from the power pole to the point just before they enter a house’s conduit system. OPPD crews may be able to make temporary repairs to restore electricity in some cases, but permanent repairs must be completed by an electrician.
- Contact OPPD at 1-800-554-6773 as soon as a private electrician has made the needed repairs or the branches have been trimmed.
6 p.m. – Community groups in the Omaha area are offering help to residents who are still without power due to yesterday’s extreme windstorm.
Here are some services available:
Debris Removal Help: Omaha Rapid Response is working to assist with cleanup in Omaha. If you need assistance, please text your name, phone number, address and what you need to Omaha Rapid Response at 402-281-5704. Volunteers are being dispatched from 9301 North 204th Street in Elkhorn.
TEAM RUBICON and UW Midlands are teaming up to help residents in Douglas and Sarpy counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie County in Iowa with tree debris removal. Please call 211 to have your name added to the spreadsheet list to receive assistance.
Debris Collection: In Bennington, tree debris can be dropped off at the west side soccer fields parking lot. No other debris is being accepted.
In Douglas County, there are five drop-off locations: Greenbrier Park in Elkhorn, Hefflinger Park, Towl Park, Levi Carter Park near Carter Lake and the football field at 156th and F streets near Zorinsky Lake.
In Council Bluffs, the Council Bluffs Recycling Center at 4441 Gifford Road will accept debris for free through Saturday, Aug. 3. For Council Bluffs residents only.
Showers/Air Conditioning: In Omaha, Armbrust YMCA is opened its doors Thursday to anyone without power who may need a shower or to get out of the heat. If you are not a member of the YMCA, you will need to bring your state ID.
Cooling Centers: Salvation Army Western Division is opening multiple cooling centers in Omaha, Thursday and Friday, to provide respite from the heat for those dealing with power outages. Locations are North Corps at 2424 Pratt Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Citadel Corps at 3738 Cuming St., 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Also, the Burrows Center at 6101 NW Radial Highway is temporarily closed due to an outage in the Benson area.
Food/Clothing Assistance: Food pantries, clothing closets and other resources are also available. Please call 211 for local options.
We’re still working to restore power to everyone affected by yesterday’s extreme windstorm. Right now there are 103,749 customers without power, down from a peak of 218,332 yesterday when the storm struck. We’ve restored service to 114,583 customers, or about 52% of those affected by the storm.
3 p.m.
OPPD customers who are still without power due to yesterday’s extreme windstorm should be getting a better idea soon of when their service will be restored.
Many of you have asked for estimated restoration times in your area so that you can plan accordingly. First, we want to thank everyone for their patience as we work through this situation. We also want to let you know that our Customer Service Team will be contacting all affected customers with our best estimates, barring any unforeseen developments.
We’ve now restored power to nearly half of the customers affected by yesterday’s extreme windstorm, and we’re still working to help everyone affected by the outage.
The number of customers without electricity stands at 113,279 as of 3 p.m. Thursday, down from the peak of 218,332 yesterday afternoon when extreme winds rolled through our service territory. We’ve restored 105,053 customers, or about 48% of everyone who lost power due the storm.
This outage count is by far the biggest in OPPD’s history, and we’ve responded with more than 1,000 of our employees, contractors, and mutual aid workers who will all be in the field by tomorrow. The previous record-setting event was the July 2021 thunderstorm that caused 188,000 outages. For reference, here’s a look at our previous 10 biggest restoration events.
Please keep in mind that the restoration work will still likely take time to fully resolve. The extent and severity of the tree damage is one factor, especially in densely populated areas of Douglas County.
Additionally, damage in some areas may only have affected three or four houses. Fixing those area is important to us, but it may not have a widespread, highly visible impact on the larger outage. We try to restore as many customers as we can, as quickly and safely as possible.
A few additional reminders:
- If you see a crew working nearby, please give them space and don’t distract them or interfere with their work. Restoring electrical service is physically and mentally demanding, and the safety of our workers, contractors, mutual aid partners and the public is our absolute top priority.
- Please also refrain from visiting the service centers where we dispatch crews. Employees there are focused on coordinating our crews and handling many other jobs. They are not able to restore your power any sooner.
- To report downed power lines or an outage on private property, please contact our Customer Service team online or at 1-800-554-OPPD (6773). Or use the OPPDconnect app.
Thank you again for your patience, and please remember again to be safe and seek help if you need it.
12:25 p.m. – We’re making more progress today in our push to restore power to everyone as safely and quickly as possible.
The number of customers in an outage is down to 116,546 as of noon, down from a peak of 218,332 yesterday evening when extreme winds battered our service territory. We’ve restored 104,545 customers, or about 47% of everyone who was affected.
We’ve added to our team as well and expect to have more than 1,000 OPPD employees, contractors and mutual aid workers in the field by tomorrow.
In the 15 hours since the storm hit, we’ve had 91 outside mutual aid crews who have either arrived to help or are on their way now. That’s the most outside help we’ve ever had for a storm. Our customer service team has fielded 78,000 calls in the last 24 hours.
It’s important to stress that our restoration efforts are still going to take some time. We’re very early in this process, and the severity and widespread nature of the damage creates challenges for us. Clearing tree debris is one major hindrance.
We also want to highlight some steps we’ve taken long before this storm hit to minimize outages as much as possible.
For years, OPPD has worked diligently to protect our system against severe weather. Our workers regularly inspect, maintain and replace equipment throughout our plants and our transmission and distribution systems. We’ve increased our inspection processes in recent years and have devoted a lot of staff resources to ensure our system is resilient and reliable.
We’ve also made significant investments to ensure smaller neighborhood lines are strong and resilient.
OPPD owns and maintains hundreds of thousands of structures, and every year there are some that need to be replaced. Sometimes, a storm may hit before we’ve had time to replace everything. But overall, our investment in equipment inspections and maintenance has steadily increased.
We also hold regular storm drills with employees throughout OPPD to prepare for major storm outages. When severe weather is expected, we hold over extra crews and support staff to ensure we have the people in place to respond quickly if needed.
Again, please remember to prioritize safety. Stay far away from downed power lines and always assume that they are live, high-voltage and extremely dangerous. If you see a downed line on a public street or sidewalk, call 911 to report the hazard. If the downed line is on private property, please report it to OPPD online or at 1-800-554-OPPD (6773) or via the OPPDconnect app.
10:45 a.m. – OPPD is responding in force to the largest outage event in our history to restore everyone’s power as soon as possible. We’ve added to our team and expect to have more than 1,000 people in the field by tomorrow.
Right now we’ve restored power to about 39% of the nearly 218,332 customers affected by last night’s storm. We’re down to 132,164 customers without electricity.
We expect to reach 50% restoration in the next few days. For areas with the most damage, we anticipate restorations could take up to eight days. Our crews and tree contractors are working around extensive, widespread storm damage right now, which creates some challenges. We’ll provide more updates as soon as we get them.
We’re also working closely with our local and state partners.
We have some news about resources that might be of help:
Replacement SNAP Request/Outage Verification requests: OPPD is working with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to ensure customers affected by the storms will have timely access to Replacement SNAP (food stamp) benefits.
OPPD customers participating in the SNAP Program that had a power outage lasting more than four hours for refrigerated food or 24 hours for frozen food are eligible for replacement SNAP benefits.
SNAP recipients do not receive replacement SNAP benefits automatically. Participating households must initiate a request with DHHS. If customers have any questions about SNAP replacement eligibility or wants to make a request, please refer them to contact AccessNebraska at 402-595-1258 or 1-800-383-4278.
Other Assistance Resources: OPPD is reaching out to our partner organizations (food pantries, shelter and cooling centers, financial assistance organizations, etc.) to determine what resources are available to customers affected by the storm. We will provide updates as soon as we have received responses. Some of our partner nonprofits are without power as well.
In the meantime, customers who need immediate assistance to meet basic needs should call 211.
Please remember to prioritize your safety. Stay far away from downed power lines and always assume that they are live, high-voltage and extremely dangerous. If you see a downed line on a public street or sidewalk, call 911 to report the hazard. If the downed line is on private property, please report it to OPPD online or at 1-800-554-OPPD (6773) or via the OPPDconnect app.
Our crews are working hard right now to restore power and will continue to do so until we’ve helped everyone. It may occasionally appear that they are not actively working, but please know that they are. Some of their tasks requires waiting to test power quality, which is not as visible as a worker in a bucket truck. This is all part of the normal restoration process.
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