GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — As if the bitter cold wasn’t brutal enough, the severe temperatures have also posed challenges to power companies and crews.
On Tuesday night, the severe cold caused an “incident in the south metro,” leaving about 5,000 customers without power for a short time.
“Extreme conditions like this can tighten up the conductors and the power lines,” explained John Marshall, Director of Community Relations with Xcel Energy.
He continued: “So the lines got a little bit tighter, pulled one and snapped off the top of one pole and brought down the top of the other pole as well.”
Marshall said crews were quick to respond, allowing them to return power to most of the homes within a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, both Xcel Energy and heating and cooling contractors encourage homeowners to follow a few simple steps, should they also find themselves without heat during this bitter cold streak.
“If you do lose power, we advise customers, stay in your home, keep the shades drawn, keep the heat insulated in your house, keep the doors closed, windows closed, bundle up,” Marshall said.
Dave Diedrich at Johnstone Supply in Golden Valley agreed. He suggested homeowners first call their power company to gauge how long they’ll be without heat. If it exceeds 24 hours, he encouraged people to take stock of their home’s characteristics.
“The older houses are not as insulated, not as tight as the newer houses built today, so they’re going to get colder a lot faster than the newer houses,” Diedrich said, adding, “Houses today should stay pretty good for the first 24 hours, but after that, you may want to consider going to a hotel or something like that.”
But before bailing on your home, Diedrich also urges homeowners to protect their pipes.
“You would want to shut off your main, the water main coming in, and you’d want to open up a faucet, so everything drains out of the pipe. When water freezes it expands, so you don’t want any of the pipes to break,” Diedrich said.
Bottom line, Diedrich said: Do your homework, then make your decision, realizing that cold weather can always throw a curveball.
“It’s just Mother Nature at its best. You try to prepare for it, but, what can you do?” he said.