07.27.11

Delegation Announces More Than $1.4 Million in Funding to Help Co-ops Recover from Storm Damage

Funding Will Help Electric Co-ops Restore Distribution System

Washington – Senators Kent Conrad and John Hoeven and Congressman Rick Berg announced today that the State of North Dakota will receive more than $1.4 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to compensate the Mountrail - Williams Electric Coop for storm damage to its infrastructure that resulted in a loss of electric power to essential services earlier this spring.

"North Dakota was hit hard by the spring blizzard. The storm devastated our power co-operatives and left many of their customers in the dark. It is going to take a good amount of time and investment to rebuild the power system. This funding from FEMA will help get the system up and running again," the delegation said in a joint statement.

During the period of April 29 to May 1, 2011, storm damage caused loss of electric power to essential services including homes, farms, businesses, and emergency service providers. Mountrail-Williams Electric Coop worked round the clock to replace (565) 3-phase poles, and associated crossarms, and (141) single-phase poles, insulators and miscellaneous hardware, (3) 15-kVA and (7) 25-kVA transformers and spliced one damaged underground cable.

The blizzard caused more than $6 million in damages to the area's electric cooperatives. At one point during the storm, more than 30,000 people were without power in the region.