FARMINGTON, Minn. (11 a.m., Sept. 17, 2021) — Dakota Electric crews have made significant progress on the outages caused by last night’s severe storms. Outages began about 3 a.m. as a severe storm moved through Dakota County and the southern metro area of the Twin Cities.
storm damage photo
storm damage photo
storm damage photo
Currently around 3,000 are out of power, which is down from a peak of around 12,000 earlier this morning. The hardest hit areas are Burnsville, Apple Valley and Eagan, but widespread damage was reported across the service territory. All available crews have been called in and are working as efficiently and safely as possible to restore outages.
All of the substations and mainlines have been restored and the work has moved to the small lines feeding individual businesses, homes and neighborhoods. Progress continues but at a slower pace as crews are still discovering the extent of damage in back yards, encountering many downed trees.
“We know our members desire to know how long their power will be out, but it’s extremely hard to estimate,” said Jeff Schoenecker, vice president of utility services. “People should plan for an extended outage that may go on for the rest of the day. We have brought in all available personnel and some contractors to help with the restoration efforts.”
Members may report power outages by calling 651-463-6201 or use the form on the website: https://www.dakotaelectric.com/report-an-outage/. Dakota Electric is working to fix the outage map on the website, which is not working correctly. Dakota Electric thanks everyone for their patience during the restoration process.
