A power outage was experienced for several hours on Wednesday, January 18 on the Big Flat, but staff and students at Turner Public Schools took the situation in stride with little to no interruption in the school day. Although Turner lost power around 3:30 a.m., Big Flat Electric crews had power restored around 10:30 that morning. The school's generators filled in the gap.

According to Big Flat Electric personnel, the North Whitewater, North Loring, and Assiniboine Creek areas lost power at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Additional outages later occurred in the Turner, Hogeland, North Dodson, and North Saco areas. Utility crews worked until midnight to remove frost from lines, repair broken wires, and restore power before taking a rest break and resuming their repairs on Wednesday morning.

A spokesperson for the utility company explained: "The extreme frost we've experienced the last few days can wreak havoc on our power lines. The frost not only weighs down the lines, but as it falls or melts off the lines, it can cause the lines to hit each other, creating power blinks and outages and in some cases breaking the line. These conditions caused the recent outages experienced, and we could expect more in the coming days."

While the frost can create lovely scenes, it does present challenges for linemen crews. Several people have also wondered about the blinking of lights. In response to that observation, Big Flat Electric personnel offer this explanation: "This [blinking is] caused by ice and frost build up from the fog. This makes beautiful pictures but causes havoc on the power lines. Some lines have gotten so heavy with ice build-up that they have snapped, causing outages. As it warms up and big chunks of ice drop off, it continues to cause problems. When large chunks of ice drop off the lines, they will jump up and down, slapping other lines, which causes the blinking. When they jump so far that they actually wrap themselves around another line, this causes a short, or an outage. We really can't do much about the blinking until there is enough sunshine to melt all the ice off the lines."

Until warming temperatures occur, power patrons are reminded to unplug any sensitive equipment. Big Flat Electric thanks everyone for their patience while we all endure the fickleness of Mother Nature and the work of Jack Frost.