As part of my duties at my job, I run the facebook page for Grand Electric. The Monday we all returned to work, our General Manager brought us all in the board room and met with us for a few minutes. He stated that he did not want to field any media calls and to give all of those types of calls to the Marketing Department (me!). So during the next two weeks, I got to be quite the media start! Haha, not really, but I spoke to radio stations, newspapers and other writers within our industry. Chet Brokaw interviewed me over the phone and published a piece nationally! Kind of cool! My name was even mentioned in the article.
Here is the link to the article if you missed it
http://local.msn.com/early-snow-kills-thousands-of-cattle-in-sd-1
That article got spread all over the world wide web!
I've also noticed numerous pictures that I took, being published (without my permission and without photo credit). But o'well. I know who took them!
As devastating as this storm was, it certainly thrust our little cooperative into the spotlight. We had over 4,000 poles go down and it took 2 full weeks to get every member back on, myself included.
The Friday the storm hit, school was dismissed at 9:30am as the rain and heavy, wet snow began to fall. By noon that day it was evident that no one would be going home that day. The snow continued to fall by the inches every hour. Outages began coming in as the ice on the lines became too heavy, lines and poles began to snap. The girls and I stayed in Bison with a friend. Thankfully the town of Bison did not lose power throughout this storm. Sunday I was called in to work, then was able to get home that evening as the roads cleared up. The next week is really an over exhausted blur. Work was absolutely crazy, as we were doing out best to keep our members updated and help in any way possible. After a few days, the horrific images began to surface on the internet of the livestock losses. Then the emotional exhaustion hit. So many had lost their entire livelihood. I cannot imagine the heartache of finding everything they had spent their entire life building, in a mound. Dead.
I honestly don't know what we have done, it we had been the less fortune. Somehow, every animal on our ranch was accounted for. Some type of miracle, when neighbors around us lost more than just a few.
On day 14's end, our power was restored and life began to get back to normal. I could run the washing machine and the dryer at the same time again, as well as three burners on the stove and the microwave! Paisley could get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and be able to turn on the light. Jed didn't have to get up each morning when my alarm went off to go start the generator. It truly is the little things!
Day 1-Friday Oct 4th
These units were called in to pull our bucket trucks around.
I had to chase this helicopter down! He flew in a crew member to disconnect a line in a flooded area. That line was keeping us from getting power at home! This was on Foster Rd.
That entire line of poles was on the ground. Rebuilt here, going into our place. From the highway to our house was gone!
He was restringing line by Bonnie's hill.
He asked me if I was sick of having no power. Ha. funny. Uhm yes, actually I am!
The creek came up, naturally.
