Advertisement According to Riverland Energy Cooperative, the outage on the evening of Jan. 6 affected about 1,200 customers. The incident began at the Krause substation on Hauser Road in the town of Onalaska.
“One of our line supervisors reported that they had a small underground fire that caused a transformer to blow,” explained company spokesperson Beth Aliesch.
It was already bitterly cold when power went out at about 7:30 p.m. By 10:15 p.m the power had been restored for everyone except the residents of the Innsbruck area who had to wait a few more hours until early Thursday morning to get their power back.
It was around 9 p.m. Wednesday when Innsbruck residents Dave and Connie Long were returning to their ridgetop home after choir practice. The darkness was their first clue that something was wrong.
“We usually go into the house through our garage, but our garage door opener didn’t work,” said Connie. “Our walkway was ice-covered and slippery, and we couldn’t really see because our outside lights weren’t working.”
They finally made their way into the house and found their son in the warmest place in the house — his bed.
Connie said it was the first time in a very long while that they had a power outage during the winter. They had become so complacent that their flashlight wasn’t even charged up. A big part of their subsequent frustration that evening was not being able to find out what was going on.
“We couldn’t find an emergency contact number or even a local radio station that would tell us what was happening,” she said.
Connie soon went to bed, but Dave stayed up in hopes the power would return so he could reset appliances that run on automatic timers. When the power came back shortly after 1 a.m., he reset the water heater and went out and moved the car back into the garage.
Sitting on a ridgetop, the Longs’ house is subject to cold winds “that blow all the way from South Dakokta” but the wind wasn’t much of a factor that night.
“We were pleasantly surprised at how warm the house stayed without power, but I think if it had been a real windy night a lot of people — not just us — would have had real problems,” Connie said.
A recent survey commissioned by Wisconsin Emergency Management and the Office of Justice Assistance suggests that Long’s assumptions are probably accurate.
Released last month, the survey found that 80 percent of Wisconsin residents had not taken basic emergency precautions — such as making a kit of emergency supplies —to use if an emergency or disaster would strike.
Jay Loeffler, administrator of emergency services for La Crosse County, advises people to keep a list handy of emergency numbers to call (the number for Riverland Energy, for example, is 1-800-927-6206).
“People have a tendency to call 911 when something goes wrong, but that’s not always the appropriate place to get information,” he said. Loeffler also advised that residents think beyond just their own immediate needs.
Are there babies or elderly people in the house? What about pets? Are there prescriptions that would need to be filled? Those are the kinds of questions Loeffler said need to be asked.
“Any time there’s a big storm coming I make sure eveyone in my family who takes prescription medicine has an adequate supply,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler added that the Web site www.ready.gov has lots of great information on how to prepare for emergencies dealing with the loss of power or heat.
While most residents affected by last week’s outage were merely inconvenienced, some actually ended up enjoying it. Jerilynn Dinsmoor and her husband, Brad, were just about to go into their son’s bedroom to hear their son and one of his friends play a song they’d written for their electric guitars.
“It turned out to be great fun,” Jerilynn said. “When something like that (the outage) happens, you don’t know whether it’s going to be for 30 seconds or three days. We ended up lighting candles and making a roaring fire in the fireplace while the boys serenaded us with acoustic guitars. It was kind of like a Bohemian bourgouis version of ‘Little House on the Prairie!’”
Although the Dinsmoors had a good time, Jerilynn said she did feel for any children who might have been home alone. Like the Longs, they noted that it’s been a long time since a winter power outage.
“I think Riverland Energy has done a super job eliminating outages. Years ago, they seemed to happen all the time,” she said.
Still, as residents of the area found out last week, a power outage during winter can have serious and potentially deadly consequences. Loeffler said that when he took Community Emergency Response Team training “it really opened my eyes.”
One of the aims of CERT training (which is free) is to provide people with the knowledge to take care of themselves, their families and neighbors should disaster strike.
CERT training course scheduled
A free training course offering information and skills on how to respond in a large-scale emergency will be held at the La Crosse County Health & Human Services Building, 300 Fourth St. N.
The 20-hour course will meet over four sessions and include hands-on training in scene assessment, fire safety, emergency medical response, light search and rescue; as well as information on local threats and hazards, county emergency management and incident command and terrorism.
Classes meet 5:45 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20; 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26; and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 27. Attendance at all classes is required for a completion certificate.
After a major disaster, first responders might not be able to immediately reach all community members requiring their services. The CERT program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergencies in their communities. People who complete CERT training have a better understanding of the potential threats to their home, workplace and community and can take the right steps to lesson the effects of these hazards on themselves, their homes or workplace.
For more information, or to register for this CERT course, call 789-4811 or visit www.publichealthprepare.org for a registration form.
Advertisement 
