7:30 p.m., March 20, 2025
Our field workers, contractors and mutual aid partners discovered severe and likely unprecedented damage to OPPD equipment today as they branched out to restore power to customers.
Throughout the day, we continued to find electrical poles, cross-arms and other equipment that all needs to be replaced. Damage is extensive in every corner of the district, but particularly bad in the more exposed rural areas.
Before this outage is over, we estimate that we’ll need to replace 1,000 poles throughout our service territory. For context, during the largest outage in our history in July 2024, we ended up replacing 419 distribution poles and 14 transmission poles.
The extreme, gusty blizzard winds were one major factor. Our engineers also tell us that the amount of ice that accumulated on some of our power lines approached the level of a 500-year event. Some lines had 2-3 inches of ice buildup on them by the time our workers arrived. Ice accumulation of 1.25 inches is considered a once-in-200-year event.
That thick, heavy layer of ice put a lot of stress on our wires and poles as strong wind gusts yanked them back and forth. Today, as the ice melted, large chunks fell and caused other damage.
That’s why we want to emphasize that the remaining restoration will take some time. Our field workers, contractors and mutual aid partners are pushing as hard as they safely can to restore your power. They’re part of this community, and with every major outage, some of their homes lose power as well.
AN IMPORTANT REMINDER
We know you’re eager to have your power restored, or maybe you’re just curious and want to see the damage and restoration work. Please, give our field workers plenty of space to do their jobs uninterrupted. Don’t do anything that could unnecessarily distract them.
THANKS TO OUR MUTUAL AID PARTNERS
We also want to thank our mutual aid partners for their assistance. We’d like to recognize Evergy – PAR Electric; Evergy- Capital Electric; Alliant Energy/WPL – Michels; LG&E/KU – 5 Star Electric; Victory Power Services; MidCon Energy; L.E. Myers; and MidAmerican Hydacker. Other mutual aid partners may arrive tomorrow to join the effort.
LATEST OUTAGE NUMBERS
As of 6 p.m., we’ve restored about 76% of the 106,000 customers who were without power at the storm’s peak. We still have 26,392 customers without power, and we’re doing everything we can to get every last one restored as quickly and safely as we can.
Thank you again for your patience.
5:30 p.m., March 20, 2025
OPPD made more progress today with our post-blizzard restoration work, and we’re going to continue with our contractors and mutual aid partners until every last customer is restored.
Shortly before 5 p.m. today, we had 26,229 customers who are still out. We still have multiple circuit lockouts to restore in all parts of our territory, and extensive damage in both the Omaha metro and rural areas. We estimate that we may have to replace more than 1,000 poles before the outage ends.
12:30 p.m., March 20, 2025
With an additional 300 workers provided by our mutual aid partners, some from as far as Kentucky, our own on-the-ground team is able to more quickly and safely assess outages and restore power. In addition to our own OPPD crews, these additional crews include line technicians, troubleshooters, cable splicers, underground construction specialists and our contractors, bringing the headcount in the field to nearly 600.
Our damage assessment and wires-down teams are out as well to ensure the most efficient response possible. As of 12:15 p.m., 33, 768 customers still awaiting restoration. The below pictures demonstrate the conditions and complexities of some of the outages around the district.
6:00 a.m., March 20, 2025
This morning we welcome more than 300 mutual aid resources, some coming from as far away as Kentucky, to continue to tackle the remaining outages from the March 19 blizzard. In addition, we expect several hundred replacement poles to arrive today and through the weekend. As of 5:45 a.m., more than 70% of the reported outages have been restored, with 32, 290 remaining.
The coming days will bring sun, warmer temperatures and significantly lower wind speeds, which will aid crews in their restoration efforts. Please continue to give crews the patience and space needed to do their work as quickly and safely as possible.
If you are still experiencing an outage and have not yet reported it, please be sure to report it online, via our OPPDConnect app or by calling 1-800-554-OPPD (6773).
We will post updates here as new information becomes available.
For previous information about this event, click here.