JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Four linemen from Northern Plains Electric traveled west Monday to help with outage restoration efforts in southwestern North Dakota.

Randy Thomson, Cando; Shannon Petersen, Josh Cabler and Josh Hoffman, all of Carrington, joined with line crews throughout the state to get the lights back on near Elgin, N.D. More than 800 Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative and neighboring Slope Electric members were out of power as of Sunday. Elgin is about 90 miles west and south of Bismarck.

“Northern Plains Electric, like all the electric cooperatives throughout the state, have a long-standing commitment to helping one another,” said Operations Manager Craig Rysavy. “Day or night – we don’t hesitate to help after a storm and other electric cooperatives would do the same for us.”

Northern Plains Electric’s crew towed its Track Digger and Track Ranger and left its traditional bucket trucks behind. The melting snow created “a muddy mess” in the 60-degree weather, Cabler said, saying in the ditches, snow is two- to three-feet deep. Since bucket trucks would get stuck, crews are also climbing poles by hand.

“To give the public an idea of this storm’s devastation, our crew worked on re-setting poles about a mile north of Elgin. In three miles of three-phase line, only five poles were left standing,” Cabler said.

Cabler said he and the NPEC linemen expect to work from 6 a.m. to about 8 p.m. each day for the rest of the week.