Gas service almost restored in Beatrice

All Beatrice Aquila customers should be back in service early this week as service technicians finish making contact with remaining out of service customers.

“We are very pleased that natural gas service has been restored to 98 percent of our customers in Beatrice,” Rick Schwartz, Aquila’s operations manager for Nebraska’s South Region, said Sunday night.

Aquila service technicians worked a four-day, around-the-clock effort to restore service to much of Beatrice this weekend. At the peak, approximately 100 Aquila employees were in the city assisting with the restoration.

“We have restored service to all customers we’ve been able to make contact with,” said Schwartz. “The services that are left to be restored are those of customers whose homes we haven’t been able to access because they haven’t been at home. But as they call us, we will dispatch a service tech to restore their service, too.”

Aquila advises customers that if they don’t have natural gas service or they have a yellow utility service flag in their yard or a red door hanger on the front door, to call Aquila so arrangements can be made to restore service. Aquila call center associates are available around the clock at (800) 303-0752.

Aquila will review its maintenance procedures to assure that a mistake like this won’t be made in the future, Schwartz said.

“Anytime we have something like this happen, we do review it to find out where the mistake was made and make sure we try to prevent it from happening in the future,” he said.

The initial problem was low pressure in south Beatrice Thursday following system maintenance Wednesday. Low pressure in the southern part of the city affected system pressures in other areas.

To safely restore service, Aquila on Thursday shut down the natural gas system in all the areas experiencing pressure problems, which affected approximately 4,600 of Beatrice’s 4,800 natural gas customers.

Aquila employees then went to each customer’s home or business and turned off the gas meter after which it re-pressurized the gas distribution system in the city. Afterwards, each meter was turned back on and pilot lights relit on natural gas equipment and appliances in the customer’s home or business.

As the extent of the pressure problem and restoration became apparent Thursday, Aquila brought in crews from other areas it serves to help in Beatrice.

Normally, 10 Aquila employees are based in Beatrice. Additional workers from Aquila-served areas in other parts of Nebraska as well as in Iowa and Kansas joined the effort and worked in Beatrice on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Housing and feeding the workforce was a major task, as meals were brought into the company’s Beatrice office and reservations made at local motels to house the out-of-town workforce. Aquila released most out-of-town employees Saturday.

Aquila worked closely with local and state officials, keeping them apprised of the restoration effort and progress being made.

“We really want to thank the partnership and support we received from the City of Beatrice, Gage County Emergency Management and the Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office,” Schwartz said. “Officials from those agencies came to our office in Beatrice Thursday and assisted with the restoration effort.”

“And, I cannot make enough positive statements about the residents of Beatrice. They waited patiently for their service to be restored and showed much friendliness and hospitality to our employees in spite of the difficult circumstances,” added Schwartz.

Safety is a top priority for Aquila. If a customer would smell natural gas, they should leave the home immediately and call Aquila on a cell phone outside the house or use a neighbor’s phone. Do not use the phone in the house where the smell of gas was detected, nor turn off any lights as the house is exited. If there is gas in the house, a spark could ignite it. Aquila’s emergency number is (800) 303-0357.