Even with help coming from cooperatives across three states, Burke-Divide Electric Cooperative expects to need another five weeks to fully re-energize its members’ power lines.

Between the two cooperatives, nearly 20,000 meters lost power due to the snow, freezing rain and wind.

Burke-Divide had all 4,300 of its customer accounts affected.

“I believe this is the first time in the history of the cooperative that all the lines were down at the same time,” General Manager Jerry King said. “I would say that Burke-Divide has never had a storm like this ever.”

Submitted Photo A path cut through the snow allows a 12-9-inch foot high truck to access transmission equipment in this photo from Burke-Divide Electric Cooperative. Snow and mud have been major issues in making system repairs in northwest North Dakota.

As of Thursday morning, 1,250 meters remained without power in Burke-Divide’s territory. The cooperative reported power has been fully restored to members in the Kenmare, Tolley, Donnybrook, Niobe and Northgate areas. Some members in the Bowbells, Flaxton, Lignite, Columbus, Crosby, Battleview and Powers Lake areas have power as well.

Burke-Divide has called in assistance from cooperatives from North Dakota, Minnesota and recently South Dakota, finding places for them to lodge for what is likely to be an extended stay.

“By the time we get the last meter on, it’s probably going to be five weeks. We are telling people that if you are OK with being on a generator, that’s fine, but if they have family somewhere that has lights on, they might think about staying with them for a bit,” King said.

“It’s a challenging time, but the North Dakota people, in my experience, are courageous and they are tough,” he added. “We have great members of the cooperative. They are out there helping us. If we get stuck, they help us out. The biggest problem we are having, the reason it is going to take so long, is the mud.”

The other issue is the extent of the damage.

“We have at least 75 miles of line on the ground. That’s just broken poles. That’s not counting broken crossarms,” King said.

The broken pole count is well over 1,000, according to the cooperative’s Facebook update. The worst areas are the western half of Burke-Divide’s service area.

Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative (MWEC) reported 5,667 meters still out Thursday afternoon or 30.7% of customers. Only 3% of Mountrail meters are affected, while more than half, 53%, of Williams meters remain out. However, that shows progress from more than 19,000 meters that lost power over the weekend.

Williams County/Williston Emergency Management has been offering temporary shelter in the Williston Area Recreation Center.

Haugen said the cooperative has up to 1,800 broken poles, not including broken crossarms and wires. Cooperative mutual aid and contractors have come from as far as Idaho and Minnesota to help.

MWEC also accepted the state’s help through its Vantis unmanned aircraft system to receive drone photography from ISight Drone Services. ISight has been able to fly beyond line of sight throughout MWEC’s system, including remote and difficult to reach areas, to provide detailed digital images of damage.

Haugen said a map with power restoration timelines down to the township level will be posted to MWEC’s website Saturday morning. Members will be able to determine from the map when they can expect their power to return. The target date is to have all service restored by May 31.

MWEC is starting with main lines and then repairing distribution lines from those main lines out to members. Because distribution lines serve a mix of customer types, energizing a line might bring both residences and oil field sites on line again, but Haugen said there is no prioritization of the oil field.

MWEC already has invested $15 million in repair parts, and Haugen said he has been pulling out favors and begging manufacturers to consider the cooperative’s urgent need. However, manufacturers don’t necessarily have items in stock and certain equipment, such as glass insulators – of which MWEC needs about 15,000 – aren’t made in the United States, he said.

Haugen said the cooperative has the financial strength to borrow to cover the repair costs. Any federal emergency assistance would help with those loans, which otherwise must be paid off by members in their rates, he said.

Montana Dakota Utilities also had much of its territory from. Wyoming into western North Dakota out of power, affecting about 18,000 customers last Sunday night.

“We had outages that were pretty extensive, from Lemmon, South Dakota, to the Canadian border,” said MDU spokesman Mark Hanson. “The largest amount of damage is north of Williston.”

As of Thursday morning, MDU still had about 200 customers out of power. Power was restored to 750 customer accounts in Crosby Wednesday night. Hanson said. Springbrook could have power later this week and Corinth and Alamo by Sunday. Ambrose, Hanks and Zahl are projected to have power by May 6.

Hanson said it is taking time to bring power to the smaller communities because of the distance and the amount of damage. For instance, the 13 miles from Crosby to Ambrose need to be repaired to bring Ambrose power.

“That line is basically a complete rebuild, both replacing poles or repairing, and the conditions aren’t ideal,” Hanson said. “If we are off-road, our bucket truck needs to be pulled by a Cat or dozer that has tracks, so that has slowed progress.”

MDU has 29 line crews working. It has had 13 different contractors assisting. Ottertail Power Co. recently came to assist after completing its repairs in the area, bringing a tracked pole digger that is expected to speed the work, Hanson said.

Getting all communities back on power won’t mean the work is done, though. Hanson explained the present work is getting a single-line feed to communities, but the loop system that creates redundancy to avoid future outages still will need repair. He estimated MDU will have another month or more of repair work after power is fully restored.