**Rotten weather and then the lights went out

The Winner, SD area got a day of really rotten weather with several inches of snow which almost all came down horizontally in the 35mph wind.  A few drifts here and there meant some shoveling.  But the real problem was the rain and freezing rain which preceded the snow.  That left a nearly one-quarter inch of ice on car windows and roads and the rain meant the first inch or two of snow is soaking wet and turns to ice as soon as compressed by a vehicle tire.   Of course, Winner city always waits until the last flake falls before clearing snow.  By that time it is too often unmoveable ice.  Rural highways were rough.  The finger drifts turned into a washboard of ice.

Then as the snow slightly diminished, the electric power went out about 7PM last night and stayed off until around 7:30 or 8:30 AM depending on which part of town or which part of the country you lived in.  Some areas west of Winner apparently did not lose power.

The most serious fallout from this is the continued worthlessness of cellphones when there is a power outage.  The PUC and the FCC must require AT&T and others to have alternate auxilliary power supplies for power outages by regular suppliers.  Many people rely on these phones for messages when there are blizzards and other rotten events.

Now, I am wondering how many more births will happen at Winner Regional Hospital 9 months from now.

***Stay tuned while I buy some batteries for portable radios--- Doug Wiken

Comments

[Wade Brandis]

We live west of Winner, not far from the city limits. Our lights dimmed about 6pm. All our Christmas lights were half the brightness they should be and electronics refused to work or acted strangely due to the low voltage. They went out completely around 7pm along with Winner. We got our lights back on around 9:45pm while Winner was dark all night.

My parents have Verizon for cell phone service, and we were able to call out and receive calls and text all night. Verizon's local tower must have back-up power. We also still had internet access since our Golden West fiber modem has a battery backup.