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Anonymous
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Heres a couple more "energy" stories I thought were interesting...My neighbor who is a lineman for a construction company that was running power lines into oil rigs near Sidney- has been down there since the storm trying to get power back to all the folks....
For those of you who don't know Montana- this area is known not only for being the furthest southeast part of Montana- but when travelling thru it is thought by some as the ends of the earth :wink: :lol:
For those of you who don't know Montana- this area is known not only for being the furthest southeast part of Montana- but when travelling thru it is thought by some as the ends of the earth :wink: :lol:
Southeast Montana reeling from storm
Neighbors pull together to get through storm cleanup
By ED KEMMICK
Of the Gazette Staff
Jack Hamblin grew up in southwestern Wyoming and he's lived in Ekalaka for the past eight years, so he was accustomed to being around people who know how to take care of themselves and are quick to respond when their neighbors need help.
"I'm used to that kind of stuff, but I've never seen anything like this," he said.
Hamblin, general manager of Southeast Electric Co-op in Ekalaka, was referring to the outpouring of volunteerism he's seen in the wake of an early May snowstorm that knocked down 1,600 power poles and, two weeks later, has left some people still without power.
Marlene Waterland, member services representative for the co-op, was in charge of finding places to stay for the dozens of linemen and other workers who would be flooding in to town to help get the co-op's power system back up. She didn't have any trouble finding them, and other volunteers offered to make meals and do laundry for the workers, since there is no self-service laundry in Ekalaka.
Other people came in to the co-op unannounced and started building cross-arms for the power poles so they'd be ready to go when the linemen arrived. Beyond that, Waterland said, farmers and ranchers have been helping out the crews, feeding them "and pulling them out when they get stuck - which there's a lot of that going on."
Hamblin said some co-op customers have asked, as soon as their power was restored, "I've got a generator, who can I give it to?"
"That's the thing about living down here," Waterland said. "Everybody pulls together. I wouldn't live anywhere else."
http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/05/17/news/state/17-storm.txt
1,000 customers in Carter, Fallon counties lost power in blizzard
By ED KEMMICK
Of The Gazette Staff
ALZADA - At BJ's Convenience Store in Alzada, the effect of an early May snowstorm is measured by the price of diesel fuel.
Bill Walker, who owns the gas station, store and snack bar with his wife, Janet, said he's been using 50 gallons of diesel fuel a day, at $3.92 a gallon, to run a tractor that powers the generator that keeps the juice flowing to the store's lights, gas pumps, freezers and coolers.
They've been without power since May 1, the first day of a storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on some areas of the southeastern corner of the state, knocking down 1,600 power poles and hundreds of miles of electrical line.
"That should get rid of our drought, but it was kind of an expensive package," Walker said. He's right about that. Jack Hamblin, general manager of the Southeast Electric Co-op in Ekalaka, estimates that the final cost of the storm will exceed $3 million.
Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been out to do a preliminary assessment, and if the bureaucratic and political stars align, the federal government could pay up to 75 percent of the damages.
But nothing is certain and Hamblin is prepared for the worst. If there is no disaster aid, he said, his rough estimate is that "it would put $20 a month on each bill for the next 30 years."
As of Friday, the co-op had restored power to nearly 80 percent of its customers. The co-op has about 1,000 members but nearly 2,000 meters, since many ranchers have multiple power sources to keep their stock wells pumping.
In Ekalaka, the storm started early on May 1. There was a little snow on the ground that morning, Hamblin said, "then that wet and heavy snow just continued for the next 30 hours."
The snow stuck fast to everything, including power poles and lines.
"That's usually OK, until the wind starts blowing," Hamblin said, and soon the wind was roaring out of the north.
By Friday, May 2, customers were calling from all over Carter and Fallon counties to report they had no power. Telephone lines were not affected because those lines have all been underground for many years, Hamblin said. For six hours on Friday, the entire system was without power because the main transmission line into Ekalaka went down.
As soon as the magnitude of the disaster was obvious, Hamblin sent out an e-mail alert to the other 24 electric co-ops in Montana, asking for help. Southeast Electric has only four linemen and a foreman to maintain 1,600 miles of power line.
By Saturday, 22 of the 24 co-ops had responded with offers to provide crews, equipment and vehicles. Hamblin also started calling private contractors, especially those with tracked vehicles capable of getting through the deep snow - and through deep mud once the snow began melting.
Between the other co-ops and the contractors, about 80 linemen have been on the job for the past two weeks, erecting new poles and stringing wire. Snow also made the pole yard at Southeast Electric impossible to get to, so authorities closed off Ekalaka's Main Street and started stacking new power poles in front of the courthouse.
The hardest-hit areas were along the Montana-South Dakota state line, near the town of Capitol and along State Line Road. Hamblin said the crews were hoping to have power restored to all residential customers by as early as Wednesday.
Fortunately, he said, most people in southeastern Montana are resilient and prepared for disasters, and already had generators. But the high cost of diesel only underlined how relatively cheap electricity is.
At BJ's Convenience Store, Bill Walker said his power bill generally runs about $700 or $800 a month, compared to the $6,000 he would spend to keep his generator running if the outage lasted a month. A newer, more efficient generator would help, but he priced them out and said a good one would cost about $20,000.
On top of the bill they pay at the store, the Walkers are also on a generator at home. Because Bill's 93-year-old mother is living with them and the power has to be on 24 hours a day, they've been using about $40 worth of a diesel fuel a day there.
"It's the worst time this could happen," Walker said. "Everybody's shearing, lambing and calving. Electricity's kind of a priority."
It certainly is at Larry and Madge Pilster's ranch, 14 miles northwest of Alzada off Highway 212. They and their two sons, Shawn and Lane, have been lambing almost continually since the start of the storm.
Madge Pilster said they have 2,000 head of sheep and 230 of cattle, and accounting for multiple births, their lamb count in recent years has run at 127 or 128 percent of the number of ewes. That means somebody has to be in the lambing sheds 24 hours a day, and the lights have to be on.
"With the price of fuel, it's been costing us $100 a day for two tractors," she said. The tractors run the generators through their drive trains, and as of Thursday they'd been running nonstop for 15 days.
"They need oil changes badly," she said.
Spring storms are nothing new in the Alzada area. The usually originate in the Gulf of Alaska and pack a wallop, Pilster said. Their ranch lost 500 ewes in a spring storm in 1969 and 430 ewes two years ago. This year they only lost three ewes, but the power outage has been a struggle.
"We don't ever want to complain about moisture, ever, but sometimes it can be difficult to do," she said.
Despite the difficulties, she had nothing but praise for Southeast Electric. If the power goes out and you call the co-op in the middle of the night, she said, "they are on the job immediately. They are fantastic."
http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/05/17/news/state/18-fallon.txt