NIXA UTILITIES: UPDATE REGARDING POWER OUTAGES

July 31, 2023

Nixa Utilities electric department crews continue to work to restore power for those customers still without electricity following last night’s derecho. While most of our approximately 11,500 electric customers have already had power restored, unfortunately, the last few customers may not have power restored until Thursday morning.

Last night’s storm was the worst outage event the City of Nixa has experienced since the ice storm of 2007. Trees were downed across the city, causing the Nixa electric distribution system to be damaged in many places. In order to restore power for every single customer, every point of damage on our distribution system needs to be repaired. Although Nixa Utilities electric crews were able to re-energize all of the city’s distribution feeders by 11:00 a.m. this morning, there are still hundreds of homes without power.

The total number of addresses still requiring attention is over 600 and in some cases, to restore power for a single customer may require hours of work to cut up a tree, repair infrastructure, and close blown fuses.

Early this morning, Nixa Utilities sent out a request for mutual aid among Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) members and the following municipal utilities have sent resources to help:

Rolla: 2 line workers and 1 bucket truck
Carthage: 2 line workers and 1 bucket truck
Waynesville: 3 line workers and 2 bucket trucks
Kennett: 4 line workers and 2 bucket trucks

Even with the extra help, Nixa Utilities now anticipate it will be Thursday morning before we can restore power for the last few customers on the list we’re working through.

If you are still without power, we ask that you please report your outage by sending an email to cityhall@nixa.com so we can be sure your address is on our list of customers still in need of electricity. Please be sure to note the specific address and if you see downed power lines, damaged utility poles, or other electric infrastructure damage.

Also, if you are without power and need a safe place to go to stay cool, the City of Nixa has two cooling centers. These locations have air conditioning, water, WIFI, and places to sit. City Hall is open 8:00am-5:00pm and The X Center is open 5:00am-9:00pm.