ENER What's up with 'Poweroutage.us' website reporting on IA and NE?

[Big Sarge]

I was just doing my daily website checks and happen to notice the reported power outages for Iowa and Nebraska 37 and 105 respectively. There was at least 2 days of huge tornadoes ripping up communities and this is all that is without power???

The site has been pretty accurate in other areas of the country after storms and hurricanes so what's different there? Just musing.

United States Power Outage Map

 

[tech]

Perhaps the reporting stations are without power as well?

 

[Cyclonemom]

Unplanted grain fields. Very few trees, except along creeks and rivers.

The swath of a tornado is much narrower than a blizzard, ice storm, or hurricane.

I grew up about a 45 minutes northwest of Harlan. Farmhouses are about 1 or 2 every mile, surrounded entirely by farm fields.

 

[Dobbin]

Owner has been to the ISO New England Control Room in Central Massachusetts and seen the screens and talked with the operators. In fact he says for a while his office was on the floor above the Control Room which was in the basement (and "hardened" against a direct hit by an airliner or bomb/missile.)



I expect elsewhere there are similar control rooms which act as their regional central information clearing house. ISO NE had their own independent generators and thus would never be "down" despite a grid-wide power outage. But communications might be less secure.

I expect for these Tornado areas, data collection has probably taken a rear seat in the wagon while more important work is done.

Dobbin

 

[Big Sarge]

Any members close to the areas reportedly hit as shown on multiple news outlets and social media experiencing lack of power? I've been to a few North East, South and South East states working outages after a major storm like a hurricane or winter ice storm and a local tornado or two and the site has always been pretty close to actual numbers.

I was under the impression that damage there in the upper midwest was looking to be comparable to the April 2011 tornados here in Alabama.

 

[HDC]

Just got off the phone with a friend who lives a few miles north of Oskaloosa, Iowa. They lost power for a few hours. He said half the town of Osky lost power at about the same time. Do to high winds.

 

[Iowa Wiley]

Unplanted grain fields. Very few trees, except along creeks and rivers.

The swath of a tornado is much narrower than a blizzard, ice storm, or hurricane.

I grew up about a 45 minutes northwest of Harlan. Farmhouses are about 1 or 2 every mile, surrounded entirely by farm fields.

Dunlap or Woodbine?

 

[SmithJ]

Some Rural Electric Co-ops are not reporters to PowerOutage.us