Sub-zero temperatures cause rolling outages, natural gas price hike (Preview)

by Carrie Moritz, Garretson Gazette

The weather has been a major talking point this past week, as large portions of the U.S. see record-breaking lows and snow storms. Locally, Garretson has experienced its coldest temperatures of the winter season, a month later than normal.

Early Tuesday morning, temperatures were near -20 degrees Farenheit in Garretson, with a wind chill level of -22 degrees. The prior four days, residents had been experiencing similar temperatures.

Normally, below zero temperatures are found in mid-January, but the second weekend in February broke records. As of last Friday, the area had already experienced a record-breaking 7 days below 10 degrees Farenheit, which hadn't been recorded since December of 1983, according to KELO.

The freezing temperatures went as far south as Galveston, Texas, who experienced their first bout of snow since 2008. Other areas of Texas were left without power and water by Tuesday morning due to the freeze.

Sioux Valley Energy customers experienced a rolling blackout on Tuesday morning, as part of a nationwide effort to keep from overloading the power grid. The co-op had hoped to be able to alert customers prior to the grid going off-line, but according to the company's Facebook page, the Southwest Power Pool determined that substations required immediate shutdown. This caused over 1600 customers to lose power around 7:00 a.m. Tuesday. On Monday, the Power Pool had issued a Level 3 Emergency Alert and power companies were requesting customers limit their use of electricity and heat.

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