Wednesday’s blizzard may have come and left, but it has left a lasting impact.
Many homes and businesses in Fremont were without power on Thursday. Other communities, including Hooper and North Bend were also coping without electricity. There were downed power lines across the county.
The current situation moved the Dodge County Board of Supervisors on Thursday morning to declare a disaster declaration for the county. Tom Smith, emergency management director, said it was needed.
“We’ve seen a lot of power outages across the entire county,” he said. “We issued a disaster declaration to the state to let them know that we may need some additional resources whether it be funding or support for the transportation of power poles to the area. The disaster declaration gives us that ability to make sure that we can respond and recover correctly.”
Smith noted that Uehling, Hooper, Winslow and North Bend are completely without power.
“We do have some communities like Scribner, Snyder and Dodge that have power and are making it work,” he said. “I know that there are power lines down throughout the county as well as tree branches and heavy snow on most of our county roads. We just urge residents to use caution when they are out and about because it impacts the entire county.”
Smith said it is important to support the different energy entities in getting power back on in the various communities, but he said there are other things that need to be done.
“We’ll be focusing on mass care, working with The Red Cross and our community partners on ensuring everything from prescriptions being filled to oxygen tanks that we rely on. We have a wide range of things we’re exploring and trying to find a solution to.”
