WINNSBORO – When the storm hit the Town of Winnsboro early Friday morning, the Town’s emergency staff responded quickly, according to Town Manager Chris Clauson.
Electric crews were mobilized immediately as the Town residents began to lose power around 4:30 a.m. The water plant and reservoir lost power leading to a depletion of the water from the water tanks, so Blythewood were quickly reverted to the City of Columbia water supply.
Town departments came out in force on Friday with the Streets and Sanitation Department staff; Public Safety Officers; Vehicle Maintenance staff; and Gas, Water and Sewer Department staff working alongside the lineman in the Electric Department to restore power as quickly as possible, according to Clauson.
In the end, a segment of the Town water system’s pressure fell below limits and a boil water advisory had to be issued.
Across the Town service area of 3,300 electric customers, a total of approximately 3,100 were out of power at some point during the weekend. The county administration building / 911 Call Center and Forest Hills area had the longest outages as trees fell on both feeding lines causing major damage.
In assessing the damage, Town staff made a call requesting outside assistance. Two electric crews from Higginsville and Macon, Missouri responded to that call and arrived around 3 p.m. on Sunday when the Town still had about 1,100 customers without power.
By Monday afternoon power had been restored to every customer, with certain exceptions where issues on the customer side prevented the power being restored, according to Clauson.
“Michael Dean and Trip Peak of the Gas, Water and Sewer Department worked tirelessly throughout the weekend addressing the issues throughout the water distribution and collection system brought on by the storm damage and power outages,” Clauson said.
The Electric Department linemen put in well over 14-16 hour days during the outages.
“Calvin Johnson and the Streets and Sanitation Department employees worked alongside Jeff Mincey and the Vehicle Maintenance Department employees to get debris out of the roads and away from power lines so that the electric crews could address the outages,” Clauson said.
“Our employees went above and beyond during the storm and resulting outages and damage, and we couldn’t be prouder of their efforts and the work they did,” Clauson said. “The downed trees and flooding caused a strain on our customers, on our employees, and our systems. It was hard on everyone. But we got through it, and we thank our employees for their dedicated service and our customers for their patience and support.”