A Freezing Darkness Falls Over Pierce
By Elizabeth Furstenau
On Monday, March 25 at approximately 7:54 a.m. darkness took over the town of Pierce. This darkness shut down every business and school in town.
Throughout the day, the town experienced multiple short power outages, that is until Monday night when the power went out and did not come back on like before. The community had to suffer through a cold and dark night. Thankfully, by Tuesday afternoon all power was restored to the town.
Ashley Halsey, utilities clerk at the Pierce City Office, claims, “The damage to the infrastructure in the Pierce utilities service area was minimal. There was one utility pole that was found broken during the storm. Pierce utilities electric superintendent Clay Johnson, along with other city workers replaced the broken pole on Wednesday.”
Many students were hoping to go home early from school. When they finally heard the news that school would be dismissed early…the lights came on. Unfortunately, half of the elementary students had already left, so the dismissal would still be taking place. The parking lots cleared out fast as everyone had to rush home due to the high winds and icy roads.
While the power was out, the Pierce city office and Pierce fire station were open to the public. They provided a warm shelter and warm meals to those without power.
Chad Anderson, city administrator at Pierce city office, talked about the safety precautions that should be taken during power outages. He says, “Do not go near any down lines, stay away, and if they see anything on the highways or roads that is unusual call it into the sheriff’s office to let them know, so the utility people can go out and restore it and do what they need to do.”
These days, most people find entertainment in watching television, scrolling through social media, and other activities requiring the internet. Since the power was off, tvs were unusable and the internet was slow or did not work at all.
If you were to ask members of the community how they found entertainment, some may say they slept through it, or that they played games with their families.
Kevin Furstenau, a member affected by the outage, says, “Oddly enough, I played monkey in the middle with my daughter and our dog. It’s actually one of our dog’s favorite games. We sit on opposite sides of the living room and toss the ball back and forth as she tries to catch it mid-air. That kept us warm for a bit too.”
Thank you to all of those who worked in the bitter conditions to restore the power to the town. To Elkhorn Rural Public Power District, with the help from mutual aid from Cuming County, and the City of Pierce, the community thanks you.
