JAMESTOWN – Otter Tail Power Co. reported Sunday afternoon that 2,500 customers in northwest Jamestown are still without power following weekend storms. The company’s website, www.otpco.com, said in a 2 p.m. update that the north feeder will be repaired by 8 p.m. Sunday. The main northwest feeder repairs will start on Sunday but may not be complete until Monday, the company said.
Crews will continue to isolate damaged areas and restore power to customers when possible, it said, adding that there are still "nested outages" in the south part of Jamestown. Crews will work on those when the main feeders are repaired. The company said it hoped to have Eldridge and Medina restored around 8 p.m. Sunday.
The company said on its power outage map that 3,300 customers in Stutsman County were without power.
Power was expected to be restored to Cleveland Sunday morning, although there may be some single-home outages for a few days, the company said. Crews have restored power in Streeter.
Otter Tail Power said it expected to restore power to the remaining rural communities to the west of Jamestown on Sunday morning.
The company reported more than 20,000 Otter Tail Power customers were without power following a strong storm system that moved through the region on June 20. The company said multiple tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail occurred in large portions of its service area and wind gusts of up to 94 mph contributed to "significant damage.”
Two storm systems moved through the Jamestown area Friday evening into Saturday morning, said Megan Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck.
Stephanie Hoff, director of communications for Otter Tail Power Co., said the company had downed or broken poles and broken power lines.
Residents were still cleaning up on Sunday after the storms, which uprooted many trees in the city. Jamestown Mayor Dwaine Heinrich issued an emergency declaration on Saturday, June 21, for the severe weather that Jamestown experienced.
The emergency declaration says the city of Jamestown was experiencing power loss for some of its critical functions, including the city's lift stations and pump stations. The declaration says that is affecting the city's ability to "efficiently collect, treat and provide water and to provide mobility throughout the City and provide essential functions."
The declaration said the storm water placed additional strain on the city's infrastructure.
Tyler Michel, public works director for the city of Jamestown, said Sunday that residents should continue to conserve water and sanitary sewer usage. He said a third of the lift stations remain without power.
The city engineer’s office said Saturday evening that usage should be limited to essential needs and conservation is needed until power is restored to the entire city. Although some areas may have electricity, the sanitary sewer lift station for that area may not, it said.
The city’s street department worked Saturday to clear some streets of trees, Michel said.
“We had some streets that were blocked,” he said. “The street department went out and tried to clear as much as they could without damaging personal property. The goal yesterday was to get the streets cleared. We started with the emergency routes and kind of worked away from them. If a tree was blocking the street and say, for example, like the base was close to a house, we didn’t mess with that because we don’t want to damage a house. … They finished later last night doing that.”
At the city baler/landfill drop-off site where residents bring tree debris, the site was staffed later on Saturday and is being staffed on Sunday, Michel said. People bringing tree debris to the site are asked to bring it inside the open gate.
“As far as the tree site, we were pretty close to full and ready to have our contractor come in and do the grinding, where they grind the trees up for us (into wood chips),” he said. “And so that storm definitely did not help us so we ended up moving them inside the gate and we are open, basically, we started at 7 this morning. We are going to be open until 5 or 7 tonight kind of depending on what the traffic is doing. If there’s a lot of people, we’ll stay open a little bit later.”
Those bringing debris today can dump it outside in the regular area but while the gate is open it’s preferred they go inside where there’s more room, Michel said.
He also said the city has not made any decision on whether it will pick up branches on the streets.
“We’ve not decided anything like that,” Michel said. “I did see some information out there (on social media) yesterday that people were saying that they can pile their tree branches on the street and the city will pick it up. That is not accurate. … We just don’t know that yet.”
Until Thursday, June 26, the emergency declaration allows anyone who is not a licensed arborist to engage to help with tree waste removal as long as the trees or logs have fallen on the ground and don't pose a risk of structural or personal injury.
Jamestown Parks and Recreation announced that McElroy, Nickeus, Klaus and Solien-Denault parks and Hillcrest Softball Complex are closed until further notice due to safety concerns. All other parks and playing fields are open for use. People are asked to avoid downed trees.
Two Rivers Activity Center opened at noon Sunday; due to water restrictions in place, the pool and Medinger Splash Park are closed. Shower will not be available. The bubble will be closed until repairs can be completed.