UPDATED 8:30 pm
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Utility crews are putting in long hours repairing damage from the storm. That includes Northwestern Energy crews who are out Thursday night trying to restore power restored to thousands of customers.
At one point they had about 95-hundred customers without power.
It was all hands on deck at the headquarters in Huron as workers rerouted power and got bucket truck crews where they needed to go. Spokesman Tom Glanzer has a warning for everyone impacted by the storm.
“If you see a power line on the ground do not touch it, treat it as if it is live. If you smell natural gas because a lot of these trees have uprooted and taken out natural gas services going into the home so make sure that you’re calling 800 245 6977 if you are a northwester energy customer, if not if you don’t know who your provider is, call 911 and they will help you out.”
Glanzer says even if a power line isn’t sparking and looks safe, it can still have power to it. Even trained workers test every line before they work on them.
Xcel Energy is also asking the public to stay away from downed power lines and not to pick up tree debris around downed power lines.
The Xcel Energy outage map reported 204 outages that impacted 12,576 customers.