Kimball and the surrounding area was left without electrical power for the early part of the afternoon Wednesday, Aug. 17 thanks to a crop duster plane accident in neighboring Wyoming.

 

The power outage was caused when a crop duster plane crashed into a 150 volt main transmission line at approximately 1:45 p.m. in Laramie County, Wyo. The pilot of plane walked away virtually uninjured. However, the plane is reported to be a total loss.

 

The power outage affected communities within a 50 mile radius of Kimball, including the communities of Pine Bluff, Wyo., Sidney, and parts of northeastern Colorado.

 

Several calls about the power outage were reported to the Kimball County Sheriff's office, jail administrator Linda Williams reported. However, the 911 system was never at risk due to the installment of a back up battery connected to a back up generator.

 

“It took us awhile to get things working right,” Randy Muhr, Kimball City Electric Power Plant Supervisor, said. Meanwhile, the city wastewater treatment plant was not affected by the power outage because it has its own generator separate from Kimball city electric.

 

Local businesses reported some inconveniences, but, for the most part, business went on as usual. “We didn't lose any customers over it,” Pizza Hut manager Brooke Kiefer said.

 

Gene Kiefer of Curley's Machine Works reported that workers had to shut down all of the machines and lost nearly a half day of work when the outage occurred.