Lincoln, Neb. — A powerful storm swept through Lincoln late Wednesday afternoon, bringing strong winds and torrential rain. The severe weather caused damage to power lines and trees, leaving more than 30,000 Lincoln Electric System customers without power according to KOLN-KGIN TV.
The City of Lincoln and Lincoln Police are busy responding to multiple calls regarding downed power lines, traffic signal outages and trees blocking streets. Officers are directing traffic at major intersections where traffic lights are out. Drivers are asked to treat them as four-way stops.
Lincoln Electric System (LES) reported that additional crews arrived Thursday morning to relieve their overnight crews. Early this morning, LES reported 6,800 customers impacted by multiple outages.
Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) reports its crews worked through the night and made good progress with power restoration, but they still have an immense amount of work ahead of them after last night’s devastating storms.
At this time, 167,514 customers are still without power. The bulk of them, 128,353, are in the Douglas County area. In Sarpy County, 33,883 customers are without power.
The extreme windstorm that struck our service territory caused widespread tree damage and outages throughout the Omaha metro area, particularly in Douglas and Sarpy counties. Wind gusts reached up to 100 miles per hour, causing customer outages in Cass, Saunders, Washington, Pottawattamie and Otoe counties.
