The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The week began with heavy storms across the region, strong enough to cause power outages throughout northeast Wyoming. On Sunday afternoon, severe thunderstorms hit Crook, Campbell and Weston Counties, causing around 4100 members of the Powder River Energy (PRECorp) cooperative to lose power.
According to the National Weather Service, thunderstorms developed in this area and moved across western South Dakota, with several locations reporting damaging hail and winds. The largest hail reported was 2.25 inches in Piedmont, SD, and the strongest wind was 83 mph in Harding, SD.
In Crook County, the largest hail reports were at 1.75 inches, 11 miles east of Devils Tower. Hail of one inch in size was reported in Aladdin and nine miles southeast of Devils Tower.
Just east of Sundance, winds reached speeds of 60 mph. Four miles north of Rozet, the National Weather Service received a report of a camper laid on its side.
Across the region, hail damaged buildings and cars and several roofs were blown off. This was followed on Monday evening by a series of storms, bringing more hail and plenty of lightning to the area.
Sunday’s storms caused significant damage to power poles and lines west of Gillette and in the Rozet and Moorcroft areas, as well as near Sundance and Upton, according to a press release from PRECorp. The largest area of damage was a double circuit power line running along the D Road north of Moorcroft, where the wind knocked down 25 poles.
PRECorp also reports that a major 69kV transmission line lost 13 structures between the Barber Creek and Bonepile substations, and more than 30 distribution poles were knocked down west of Gillette.
Some of the 4100 affected were restored quickly because power could be rerouted over redundant lines. However, PRECorp reports that some areas were more extensively damaged and lost power for several hours and others in the Moorcroft and Rozet areas were still out on Monday.
“As always we are doing our best to restore power to our members as safely and quickly as possible,” said PRECorp VP of System Operations Rich Halloran. “This event was very widespread and we are fortunate to have shifts of linemen who work safely day and night to bring these impacted areas back on line.”
PRECorp asks the community to please report any damage you see, from large overhead lines to the meter at your house. Call PRECorp Member Service at 1-888-391-6220 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
