Black Hills area sees power outages due to 70mph winds

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Windy conditions Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning caused power outages and property damage across the Black Hills.

Residents woke up to strong winds, and even power outages in Rapid City, Custer, and Edgemont. Gusts hit as high as 70 mph in certain parts of the Black Hills region.

Mike Pogany is the Director of Operations at Black Hills Energy. He said crews were able to respond quickly to the outages this morning.

“Our crews are dispatched 24/7, so we have crews readily available to respond to outages,” Pogany said. “Typically, it depends on the travel time to get to the outage. Our crews then survey the area to make sure it’s safe and then work on restoring the outage.”

The high winds also damaged property around Rapid City and Box Elder. Pogany said the 70 mph winds can do a lot of damage to overhead power lines. He has this safety advice for customers:

“We encourage all our customers, when there’s an outage, to stay away from and downed powerlines. They should also log on to our website BlackHillsEnergy.com to see a current outage map.”

He also says customers experiencing an outage should call customer service at 1-800-894-5554.