Beltrami Co. State of Emergency: Thousands without power
Beltrami County declares State of Emergency
Beltrami County declared a State of Emergency after severe storms caused major damage in the area. FOX 9's Leon Purvis has the latest.
BELTRAMI COUNTY, Minn. (FOX 9) - Beltrami County declared a State of Emergency after storms ripped through Bemidji over the weekend. As of Sunday, thousands of people in Bemidji are without power. County officials say there’s no word on when everyone will have power restored, but it could take a couple of days.
Bemidji residents work together to clean up storm damage
What they're saying:
"Our sense of community here has been nothing short of amazing," said Bemidji resident Kirsten Weiher.
County officials say about 4500 Beltrami Electric customers are without power as of Sunday afternoon.
"Our community is living without power, without food, without water, and we're just trying to clean our way out," said Weiher.
For Otter Tail Power Company customers, a spokesperson says it is about 8,000 without power.
"Our personal home has slight roof damage, slight surface area damage. Now, our yard itself, our shop where we work out of we've lost probably over 60 trees in our yard alone. Some of them hit our house," said Weiher.
County and power companies work to restore
What they're saying:
"I've actually seen buildings totally demolished. You know that where the building is flattened, roofs completely ripped off and flowing over into power lines ensure insulation everywhere," said Craig Gaasvig, Beltrami County Commissioner and Chair.
Gaasvig tells FOX 9 he doesn’t have any idea when power will be back up for everyone in Bemidji, but it could be several days. Meanwhile, Otter Tail Power Company has 55 crews on the ground to restore power to customers.
"We are hoping that we have everyone restored within the next couple of days. Now, as I'm sure you can imagine, as our crews are out and about doing the restoration work, they can often stumble across things that we couldn't have possibly anticipated," said Stephanie Hoff, Director of Communications for Otter Tail Power Company.