UPDATE: Thousands remain without power Friday morning

UPDATE, 11:40 a.m. Friday

The number of outages for Sioux Valley Energy members has dropped to approximately 5,000.

Crews have currently found 375 broken poles and expect to find more today as crews continue patrolling.

Power suppliers East River Electric and L&O Power have restored power to the area substations. Energy officials said at the height of the storm, East River Electric had 27 substations down. They have 3 left to energize. L&O Power still has several substations down but hopes to get the Pipestone substation energized today. Officials said while some members will get power after the substations are energized, some of them won’t because there is also damage to the distribution system.

The Sioux Valley Energy system covers approximately 6,000 square miles and have damage in almost half of it—2,500 square miles.

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UPDATE, 8:15 a.m. Friday

Thousands of people in eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota remain without power Friday in the wake of the recent snowstorm.

Around 6,000 South Dakota Rural Electric Coop Assoc. customers still do not have power, according to the organization's website. Most of those are Sioux Valley coop customers in the Madison and Brookings area.

About 4,000 Xcel Customers are still without power. According to the company's outage map, about 700 are in the Sioux Falls area; most are in southwest Minnesota.

You can find SDREA's outage map

. You can find Xcel's outage map

.

Xcel Energy says they have restored power to more than 67,000 customers during the snowstorm. More than 275 employees and contractors are currently working in southwest Minnesota and southeast South Dakota to get power fully restored.

The Sioux Valley Energy Coop posted to Facebook that over 300 poles are down in their service area. Crews are out doing repairs, but they are struggling with poor road conditions.

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UPDATE, 3:07 p.m.

East River Electric Power Cooperative has restored power to 16 of the 27 substations that lost power due to the April ice and snow storm.

The cooperative’s crews continue assessing damages and making repairs where possible.

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UPDATE, 11:00 a.m.

Over ten thousand homes and businesses remain without power Thursday as a large spring snowstorm moves through.

At least 13,000 South Dakota Rural Electric Coop Assoc. customers and at least 6,000 Xcel Energy customers in eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota are still without power as of 11:00 a.m., according to each company's outage maps.

Both companies tell KSFY News they have crews out working to address the outages, but they are being hampered by the ongoing poor weather conditions.

SDREA officials say East River Electric, which is the power provider to 24 coops in the region, currently has 27 substations without power.

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Thousands of people are without power Thursday morning as a spring snowstorm moves through the region.

According to Xcel Energy, more than 5,000 customers in southeast SoutH Dakota are still without power. Most of those are in Sioux Falls and the surrounding area.

Sioux Valley Energy throughout the Southeastern part of South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota is reporting 9,100 outages.

Another company experiencing outages across the area is Southeastern Electric Cooperative. According to the company's toll line, customers will remain without electricity overnight. Crews have been pulled due to weather conditions.

Southeastern Electric crews will re-evaluate conditions Thursday morning and continue working to fix those power outages, weather permitting.

Communities affected include: Beresford, Bridgewater, Canistota, Canton, Dolton, Freeman, Fairview, Harrisburg, Hudson, Lennox, Madison, Marion, Menno, Montorose, Parker, Salem, Sioux Falls, Tea, Viborg, Worthing, and surrounding areas.

We have a link to both of the websites in the related links tab.

Click here for Sioux Valley Energy Map: