Links:
FEMA Web Page about this Disaster
Photo Log
Nebraska Public Power District front page
Mitigation Projects for Severe Winter Weather (select "Winter Storm" in the "Hazard" box)

Background:
Beginning with a smaller ice storm on December 19, 2006, and a larger ice storm which started on December 29th, an area from southwest-to-northeast Nebraska (see a map of the declared counties here) was crippled by storms which covered power lines with an unprecedented thickness of ice - reported up to 4 inches. The hardest-hit counties were on either side of a line from Pierce County in the northeast to Furnas County in south-central Nebraska. When accompanied by the high winds, these conditions caused lower-voltage distribution poles to snap and higher-voltage steel lattice structures to collapse. In many cases, the lines were stretched or otherwise rendered useless even if the poles remained standing. There were no persons reported killed as a result of this disaster, but there were as many as 35,000 without power. At its highest, 37 segments of high-voltage transmission lines were out of service.

Governor Heineman declared a State of Emergency on December 29, 2006. President Bush declared this a federal disaster area for 57 counties on January 7, 2007. The federal declaration is for Public Assistance and for Mitigation. Public Assistance is available to restore publicly-owned buildings and infrastructure to the pre-disaster condition. Since Nebraska's electricity system is 100% public power, all costs associated with damage to and repairing the system are eligible for federal disaster assistance. A percentage of the entire damage amount will be made available to the State for mitigation. Potential mitigation projects might be to install "dead end" pole structures to prevent the cascading effect of losing pole after pole. Upgrades to dead end structures have been installed on existing lines using mitigation funds from previous disasters, and initial reports have shown that these upgraded poles performed as designed. This disaster declaration did not include Individual Assistance funds, which would be used to reimburse individual persons for losses. For an ice storm, much of this type of loss is covered by individual homeowners insurance.

Power Infrastructure Impacts: NPPD's map of initial storm impact area
Daily updates (sources in parenthesis):
December 31 - NPPD estimates outages to about 5000-10,000 of its retail customers, 35 of NPPD's transmission lines currently out of service (NPPD)
January 1 - 15,000 customers without power, 31 NPPD transmission lines down, NPPD battling outages in 49 communities - including Kearney and Norfolk (Lincoln Journal Star)
January 2 - 600 miles of high-voltage power line out of service - 130 miles were on the ground or severely damaged (NPPD), 100 NPPD substations affected by storm (LJS)
January 2 - 12 of 33 communities still without electricity (NPPD)
January 3 - estimate increased to 29,000 people with no power - previous estimate was for 13,000 households, not customers (LJS)
January 3 - NPPD has 26 segments of transmission line inoperable (NPPD)
January 4 - Governor Heineman estimates damage at $50 million, about a dozen of the 35 communities devastated by the storm have partial or full power (LJS)
January 4 - About 21 towns still without power, 22,000 people (11,000 accounts) remained without power (Omaha World Herald)
January 4 - NPPD estimates 6,700 homes or businesses remain without power - the reduction comes from restoring power or by delivering generators, a second transmission line into Kearney is completed, but NPPD still has 26 transmission segments inoperable, Holdrege still mostly without power (NPPD)
January 5 - Damage declared in excess of the 1976 ice storm (NPPD), 10 towns without power, "partial damage estimate" of $58 million (OWH)
January 7 - President Bush declares 57 counties federal disaster areas
January 8 - 9,500 customers across 12 power districts, damage estimates are unknown but could be $100 million or more (LJS)
January 9 - 8000 customers without power (OWH)
January 10 - Governor Heineman: "This is probably the most devastating ice storm we've ever had in Nebraska," estimates storm damage at $200 million, 6000 to 7000 customers off-line and some will not get power for many weeks, 2600 miles of power lines out of service, 739 miles of high-voltage lines disabled (OWH)
January 10 - Number of customers without power rising as utilities got a better idea of the damage, 22 transmission lines remain out of commission (LJS)
January 11 - 20 transmission line segments remain out of service, approximately 4000 to 4500 customers living in more rural and remote locations remain without power (NPPD)
January 16 - Senator Nelson reports damage estimate may reach $250 million, NPPD and Southern Power District (based in Grand Island) estimate damage at $180 million and $80 million respectively, fewer than 1000 customers without power- mostly in Southern PD (OWH), one of three 115 kilovolt lines restored to Holdrege; power restored to Hildreth, Inland, and Loomis (NPPD)
January 18 - Number of offline transmission segments down to 16 (NPPD), fewer than 190 customers remain without power, emergency generation still required for Kenesaw, Funk, and Wilcox (OWH)
January 20 - Lincoln Electric System paying $80,000/day ($2 million since January 1) because of needing to purchase power due to lost transmission capacity through the disaster area, damage total estimated at $240 million, NPPD not expecting full reliability of transmission system for several months (LJS)

Business Impacts:
Businesses were impacted by loss of electricity. This information will be updated as it is received.

Critical Facilities:
No information is currently available which details power outages on critical facilities like hospitals, police stations, and fire departments. This information will be updated as it is received.