MidAmerican Energy Storm Update - Friday, March 31, 2023 12 p.m.
As you have all heard during the last 24 hours, the National Weather Service is predicting severe storms to impact much of the State of Iowa and parts of Illinois. MidAmerican has been preparing during the week to be able to quickly respond. We will be out doing outage restoration activities as soon as is it safe to do so. Following is information for you to know how we are approaching the storm, the resources out in the communities, and the support services.
The National Weather Service predicts that storms will develop after 2:00 p.m. today west of Interstate 35 and then the threat will increase as the front moves into eastern Iowa. All modes of severe weather are possible, including intense thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes as the storm front passes across the state. Following the storms for a period of 6-12 hours, high, sustained winds gusting to 55 miles per hour are expected.
MidAmerican has notified its distribution and transmission line crews of the weather threat and plans to hold crews beyond their regular shifts as the weather threat advances. MidAmerican is contacting additional contract line crews about their availability and is placing those crews on standby.
MidAmerican has identified nearly 75 contract tree crews that will likely be available on Friday and is making contact with crews to place them on standby status.
The company is also staging several storm trailers to central and eastern Iowa, including in Des Moines, Waterloo, Iowa City and the Quad Cities. These trailers are fully loaded with equipment and components that our line crews need most frequently during storm restoration events.
Companywide, we are preparing to notify those employees who are on-call for storm roles that they may be activated, if necessary. Those storm roles include “wire watchers,” which identify and monitor downed lines to ensure public safety. We are also increasing staffing at our customer experience center to ensure we are able to handle an increased call volume that may result if outages occur.
Our corporate communications office has been in contact with various news outlets to help keep the public updated, and those outreach efforts will continue throughout the storm event. We are also planning on posting social media messages and website messages to keep our customers updated on any outages and to reinforce storm safety messages.
Our electric delivery team continues to update its plans based on the forecast and current weather conditions, and we will provide updates as they become available.
If a power outage is experienced, you can report it online, via social media or by calling us at 888-427-5632. We also encourage opting into text and email notifications via My Account for repair updates.
As always, we are here to support you as our customer and community partner – 24/7, 365. We will continue to provide updates on our website as well as through our social media channels.