The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Hill County Electric experienced a significant power outage, spanning an area larger than several states. The outage extended from Box Elder to the high line, over to Chester, down to Fort Benton, and included Loma and Virgille, rural areas in Big Sandy and the Hopp-Illaid area, and the river. This extensive outage requires your understanding and patience as we work to restore power.

The following was taken from their website. "HCE has determined the outage is caused by transmission transformer failure at the Veronia Substation. The outage will extend through the night. Thank you for your continued understanding and patience."

"Update 4/14/2024 We apologize for the outage and are working hard to get our transmission service back up and running. Our current estimation of restoration is today if HCE gains permission to move our transmission connection to restore power. Thank you for your continued understanding and patience as we work to restore power."

"The Mint bar in Big Sandy has some spare batteries that members can bring in their discharged battery in the cyber power and swap it for a charged one. Thank you to the Mint for your help in keeping member's phones working."

"Update 4/14/2024 Unfortunately, we have not gained permission to move our transmission connection. We do have a crew onsite testing the transformer. The testing is expected to last until about 11 PM. If the results are not positive, our members will be without power throughout the night as we continue to work on multiple avenues to restore power as quickly as we can. If the results are positive, we will work to restore power late tonight. We will post another update as soon as we have more information."

Amazing what you can NOT do without power. I could sweep, dust, rake, and read books.