Omaha storm recovery: OPPD calls outage historical

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - The largest blackout in OPPD’s history came from Wednesday night’s storm.

At its peak, officials said almost 220,000 homes and businesses lost power. That tops the previous record from July 2021, when around 188,000 customers were left in the dark.

OPPD said during an update with the city Thursday morning that it could take seven to eight days to restore power for all customers, similar to how it went in 2021. But unlike in 2021, more utility companies from neighboring districts are able to help out with the recovery efforts.

“We have damage assessment teams out looking and mobilizing on damage in the areas,” said utilities coordinator Wyndle Young. “I should probably have a better idea of what the restoration time looks like here in the coming days.”

OPPD said the storm downed more than just power lines. It also damaged equipment at substations, transmission structures and knocked out transformers.

They expect to have 50% of the power restored by Friday, and they told 6 News Thursday afternoon they’re ahead of schedule. As of 7:45 p.m. Thursday, outages in the Omaha-metro were below 100,000.

“As of noon, we had about 47 percent power restoration in our service territory, so we’re hoping to even be ahead of that target,” said media specialist Jodi Baker. “However, that comes with a little bit of a warning that some of the final repairs do take a lot longer. You’re dealing with a lot more intricate work that needs to be done, so that progress that’s been pretty speedy to this point can tend to slow down toward the end.”

A lot of that slow progress is likely to happen in older areas with dense trees, including Bellevue, South Omaha, Dundee and North Omaha, so they could be in the dark for several days.

“Whether getting to a neighborhood or just even getting into somebody’s back yard when they’ve got a lot of tree damage, trying to get in — and we have to have tree crews that are specialized in this come in — remove the obstruction, remove those tree branches from a de-energized line safely so that our repair crews can then come in and make repairs,” Baker said.

In the meantime, if you see a downed power line, assume that it’s live and stay away from it.

“If it’s in a public street, blocking traffic or somewhere where somebody could get hurt, definitely call 911,” Baker said. “Make sure they know about it. If it’s on private property, your own land, call OPPD. Let us know and we will come out and tend to it.”

Also concerning safety, OPPD asks that you do not approach crews while they’re working in the field because they’re handling dangerous tasks and need to focus their work to safely restore power.

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