Vandals Cause Power Outage - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Vandals Cause Power Outage

Vandalism in McLean County caused a power outage for nearly one thousand people on Sunday.
A transformer at the Roseglen distribution substation was shot with a rifle ---

the slow leak of oil out of the cooling fin caused the transformer to short circuit, leaving 969 meters without power for six hours or more.
McLean Electric Cooperative traced the power outage from three pole mounts to the Roseglen substation operated by Central Power of Minot.
Power was rerouted and restored by Sunday night.
Central Power replaced the damaged transformer on Monday and work continued today cleaning up the oil that saturated the ground.
A $4,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the vandals.

(Darrin Sand, McLean Electric Co-Op) "We've had loss of power before. And we have had acts of vandalism. But I don't think it's ever been this severe."

Not far from the substation, Camp of the Cross was among those that experienced a lengthy power outage on Sunday.

(Janis Sloka III, Camp of the Cross Director) "We lost our power. And had no idea why we lost our power. But we lost it for four to five hours, which was a little stressful because we had our freezers and refrigerators and we had 80 campers arriving. It was an interesting day for us."

If you have information that could lead to the arrest of those who vandalized the Roseglen substation, please contact McLean County Sheriff's Department, Central Power or McLean Electric Cooperative.