Public Power District Hay Springs, NE 69347 May 2019 Winter Storm Ulmer Wreaks Havok Causing Outages Winter Storm Ulmer wreaked havoc all across Nebraska and into neighbor states. The storm that began early Wednesday, March 13 pretty much brought everything to a halt for a few days, with the exception of our area farmers and ranchers who braved the ele- ments to tend to cattle and other livestock. Some of the other first people to begin the cleanup along side the road crews were Northwest Rural linemen who had a few challenges to get through in order to restore power to 96 consumers. “We had 96 accounts out of power most of them were in Dawes County and had only 23 accounts in Sheridan County,” explained Ron Olson, NRPPD Operations Manager. The linemen used snowmobiles in many instances to reach the outages since the roads were still blocked with massive snow drifts. “Northwest has employees that own snowmobiles that we rent from them on major storms like this when we can’t get around with our four wheelers and our track vehicles,” explained Olson. “Highways were all closed Thursday and cleared enough by Friday to drive to the county roads then we A tracker was used to get to an outage on Justin would use snowmobiles and our track vehicles to get Raymer’s place seven miles south and one mile east of Hay around.” Springs. Below, a downed pole in the Belmont area, which was the worst area effected by outages. “West Belmont was the worst area to get around and had the most damage. But we got lucky we didn’t Northwest Rural have the damage to our system with how much snow had everyone on call and wind we got,” said Olson. for this storm and used all their lineman to restore outages. “We just couldn’t get around and had to dig our own employees out so they could make it to our office. Then our employees had to move snow to get our equipment out at our office,” said Olson. “Northwest Rural Public Power District got lucky the condi- tions before the snow temperatures were Above, NRPPD Linemen Matt Anderson (left) warm enough that the and Abe Young load up to head to the next outage. (Cont. on Page 2) NORTHWEST RURAL NEWS Panhandle (Continued from Page 1) rain we got didn’t become ice on our lines, so most of thedamage was from the high winds,” said Olson “The farmers and the road departments had far more dam- age then we did.” In fact there were consider- able more damages during the Christmas storm of 2016 when there were 2038 outages, which ended up requiring 26,588 man hours, which averaged to about 11 hours per household. Northwest Rural does have a few poles to change out when Northwest Rural employees make their way through a blocked road after the snow melts and the flooding after the County got the road opened near Belmont. stops and the country roads dry up. Most of the damage to our area was the farmers dealing with calving and try- ing to keep cattle safe. Also the counties road From left, departments have a lot of work ahead of them with NRPPD the flooding on the roads. Linemen “We did have to move a pole south of Darren Hay Springs next to the river because the river Drabbels, has rose high enough to cut a new path close to Matt our pole that the dirt was gone,” added Olson. Anderson “Ulmer” was the most widespread natural dis- and Abe aster in the state’s history. The flooding and severe Young weather caused 81 of Nebraska’s 93 counties to make issue disaster declaration. In the Panhandle, the their way estimated loss of cattle is between 400-600. to an out- The state as a whole, preliminary estimates of age fol- damage to homes and business, as well as state lowing infrastructure, topped $1.3 million. Damage to Winter roads, bridges and other state infrastructure sys- Storm tems is estimated at $439 million. About 2,000 miles of state roads, roughly 20 percent of the Ulmer. entire state road system Before Selling or Buying Farm, Ranch or Land, Call: WRECK-A-MENDED Phillip Rosfeld Broker BODY WORKS Free Estimates • Custom Painting (308) 282-2005 Steve & Valli Petersen 701 South Main • Gordon 2-A Northwest Rural P.P.D. Your Touchstone Energy Partner May 2019 NORTHWEST RURAL NEWS Along The Garden Path -by Karen Runkle, Master Gardener I am not a scientist - I just want a garden The Seed is Where it All Begins-- I got it - Most seeds we buy at the garden center has all the We want to plant a garden so we buy seeds and put components and is viable. It is when we keep the seeds from them in the ground - Presto! It grows and we have pret- year to year that we start getting into trouble. It is important to ty flowers and lots of veggies from our garden. We real- keep your seed in a cool dry location. If you think your seed ly don't think of the seed could be questionable, put 2-3 seeds in a wet paper towel in a much more than that plastic container and see if it will sprout. The back of the seed but what is this little tiny packet should tell you how many days it takes to germinate. item that starts it all. Double the time. If they have not sprouted at that time, buy If we look up the def- new seed. inition of a seed it states A Few Interesting facts about seeds that "a seed if a small • The smallest seed is only 1/300th inch long. It is an orchid embryonic plant in a covering called the seed coat, usu- called Gomesa crispa ally with some stored food." This means that the seed is • The largest seed is a sea coconut weighing a whopping 33 composed of three main parts pounds and is approximately 15 inches long. 1. Embryo which is the immature plant • Some plants like ferns don't produce seeds. 2. A supply of nutrients for the seedling to get its start. • One dandelion flower will produce approximately 200 seeds. 3. It has a seed coat surround it which protects the Fortunately they are not easily germinated and not easy to food and the embryo until it is able to grow. grow. This is hard to believe when you see the dandelions in All three of these components must be present my yard but if you consider that every bloom of fluff has 200 before the seed will germinate and grow. seeds it is easier to comprehend. 1. The embryo must be alive, which is called 'seed via- bility.' Different conditions can affect 'seed viability'. Some seeds do not produce a functional and complete ULTIVATING embryo (hybrid seeds). Environmental conditions like C flooding (sitting in water) or too much heat (fire or stored RELATIONSHIPS in a hot place) can damage or kill the embryo. The age of the seed can also affect the seed's health and germi- Homegrown is always better. nation ability. Homegrown banking means 2. Any dormancy requirements of the seed must be met. Dormancy requirements depend on the seed. local decision making and a Seeds such as walnut, peach, lettuce and some flowers better understanding of what have very hard coats which need to be scarified or dam- aged before they are able to absorb water and germi- customers need and expect nate. Other seeds such as cone flowers and many fruits from their banks. need to be stratified to break dormancy. Stratification is the moist chilling of the seed. Mother Nature does this naturally to our prairie flowers when we have cold wet Let’s grow together. snows and freezing temperatures. 3. The proper environmental conditions must be HECKING AVINGS ERSONAL USINESS OANS met for germination. Conditions include warmth, light, C • S • P & B L moisture and a proper soil. Of course these vary with CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT • MORTGAGES • INSURANCE each seed. That is why cactus is planted in a coarse, sandy mixture which is kept on the dry side and your tomatoes need to be planted down into damp, fertile, 231 N. Main warm soil. A little side note here: Many of your annual 638-4416 flowers need light to germinate....hence, don't cover the Hay Springs seed with soil. Petunias and moss rose fall into this cat- egory. I am not going to admit how long it took me to fig- Member FDIC ure this trick out. May 2019 Northwest Rural P.P.D. Your Touchstone Energy Partner 3-A NORTHWEST RURAL NEWS Osmose, the pole testers, are coming to the Rushville south area in the Attention near future and updates will posted on our Facebook page as to Irrigation their progress. Customers: NRPPD irrigation cus- tomers who are partici- pating in the traditional or Time of Day (ToD) load control programs Quality Custom Made Hats & Accessories can now check our GARY & JOAN WAUGH Load Control Status by G: 308-532-1700 or J: 308-534-4907 visiting our website at Gordon, Nebraska www.nrppd.com and “Satisfaction Guaranteed” clicking on the “Load Control Status” button. This is available on mobile devices and computers. On Farm Tire Repair! Page 4-A Northwest Rural P.P.D. Your Touchstone Energy Partner May 2019 Science that Sparks: The NEED Conference Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, in Project, at [email protected] or Michelle Pastor, conjunction with The National Energy Education Tri-State, at [email protected].