Power companies working to prevent flood-related outages

As more water flows around the Lake Delhi dam power companies are trying to prevent outages downriver.

ITC's Tom Petersen says his crews are working with crews from CIPCO and Alliant to protect a sub-station in Monticello. Petersen says the sub-station provides power to Monticello's industrial park area.

He also says they are looking at trying to isolate some 34,500 volt lines that cross the Maquoketa River.

Power crews started looking at plans to prevent outages early this morning once there was concern that the dam at Lake Delhi could be compromised.

Petersen says they are also watching the Wapsi River in Anamosa. He says they have some power equipment located in low-lying areas that could have problems if the water continues to rise there.

Alliant's Ryan Stensland says one of the lessons the company learned from the 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids was to prepare to re-route customer's electricity before a flood-related outage occurs.

He also says they've been working through different scenarios to re-route power as heavy rains and flooding have occurred. Stensland also says crews have been busy today disconnecting power and gas from individual homeowners who have been flooded.

Alliant is also asking customers to assume that flooded basements may still have live electrical lines and to proceed with caution as they try to clean-up the mess.

The power company has crews available to help disconnect electricity if you can't reach the circuit box.