Blinding Blizzard Reduces Visibility, Knocks Out Power

Outage maps seem to indicate the communities hardest hit are to the north and the east of Fargo.

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – Visibility on the roads in the Fargo-Moorhead area remained passable in the morning hours of December 18, but rapidly progressed to become heavily obscured as the day wore on.

Perhaps the biggest impacts of this winter storm were to the electrical grid.

Xcel Energy seemed to be hit the hardest, with a couple of transformers briefly going offline near downtown Fargo.

Otter Tail and Grand Forks County also saw some outages.

“It’s really the weather pattern,” explained Chad Brousseau, VP of Member & Energy Services for the Cass County Electric Cooperative. “I know the weather’s a little worse north of our service territory, it just depends how that weather tracks, whether one utility gets hit or another doesn’t.”

The Cooperative was lucky on that front, with only one of their lines being felled by a tree branch.

They say the situation could have been much worse, as there were no bouts of freezing rain, which is far more harmful to power lines than mere wind.

“When you get those conditions where it sticks to the line . . . it adds weight to the line. It can increase the chances of those lines galloping and slapping together,” said Brousseau. “The line can break, the power pole can break.”

Authorities on both sides of the North Dakota / Minnesota border have advised residents not to travel until the blizzard passes, meaning many will likely hunker in place until conditions improve.