Alliant: 27,000 customers still without power from big storm

Alliant Energy asked customers in Marshall, Tama, Benton and northern Linn County to conserve energy usage due to Monday morning's storm that thousands without power and miles of power line down.

About 27,000 customers remained without power at 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon out of nearly 40,000 without power at the peak of outages. In areas where the worst damage took place, it could be mid-week before power is restored, Alliant indicated in a statement released late Monday afternoon.

Crews will be switching electric feeds to restore customers as quickly as possible, the utility said, so non-damaged equipment in the region will be taxed by additional customers and warm weather.

The main area of damage stretches from east of I-35 to the Mississippi River, Alliant Energy reported, with the worst damage to the electric system is in Marshall, Tama, Benton, and northern Linn Counties. The damage included major equipment within substations that serve Clutier and Gawin, and nearly 500 damaged utility poles.

Natural gas service was shut off to Garwin due to the storm damage.

“The damage in some communities from these winds is consistent with the damage from a tornado. However, due to the straight-line winds, this damage stretches miles and miles,” says Vern Gebhart, Vice President of Energy Delivery for Alliant Energy. “We have all resources within our company, as well as additional contractor crews focused on restoring power to impacted customers. We appreciate your patience and assure you we won't stop until all customers are restored.”

Nearly 200 crewmembers from across the state have either arrived or will soon be arriving from throughout the Alliant Energy service territory to supplement the crews already working in the storm-damaged area, Gebhart said. This includes crews from Alliant Energy, ITC Midwest, and contractor crews supporting the efforts of both companies.