By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Midwest Energy was reported at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, they are continuing to repair damage caused by Wednesday's storms, but hundreds of power poles may have been lost across the region.
"Our outage maps currently show 7,900 customers without power, but that is overstated as some of the circuits in Hays showing out are actually on - it’s just a few locations have damage and no service, so the whole circuit appears as out," the company announced Thursday. "The numbers are dropping by the hour as crews bring more residential customers online system-wide."
They also reported Colby crews working rural outages north of Hoxie, and on a feeder line north of Grinnell have found around 40 poles to replace, and are working to replace them today.
"The Hays District had the worst damage; most residential were back on last night," the company said. "We know of 100 poles down, but there is a huge area of NW Ellis / W Russel and SE Rooks counties where fires likely destroyed the system. One firefighter said he saw “zero” poles between Gorham and Natoma - which could mean hundreds. Our GIS folks and stalkers are using drones to survey damage."
The company said another update is expected later today.