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From the Ipswich Tribune Decembr 19, 1929 edition

Storm plays havoc with telephone, light wires

The past week this section of South Dakota, experienced one of the worst fog and sleet storms on record, causing thousands of dollars of damage to Public Utilities operating in this section of South Dakota and causing serious interruptions to electric light, telephone and telegraph service.

Electric light, telephone and telegraph lines were down in many places and in some sections the poles carrying the lines were broken off, due to the excessive weight of the ice clinging to the wires. Considerable damage has also been done to trees and shrubbery.

Every available employee of the Northern Power and Light company worked day and night to restore service and in many cases citizens of towns served by their lines volunteered to help in any way possible.

Ipswich has been exceptionally fortunate in having lights while other nearby towns are in darkness.

A great deal of credit is due the employees of the company and also the patrons for their unswerving loyalty in restoring service in spite of the almost inclement weather. Night and day they kept on duty repairing breaks in the lines and restoring service, only to have their work undone by a break at some other point on the line.

Due to the interruption to telephone service, it was necessary to drive a good many miles to handle a switching service. Ordinarily when a crew of men have completed work on a section of line, they can go to the nearest telephone station and report the line clear to the dispatch; this was impossible the past week and, in some cases, someone had to drive forty to fifty miles to report the line clear and shortly after the line was in service, have it break again.

Patrons of the utilities experienced considerable inconvenience during the storm and the companies appreciate the consideration and patience shown by everyone during the storm.

The fog and sleet fell from December 9 until the present writing, accompanied by a freezing temperature and built up on the wires to a diameter of three to four inches and in some instances to a maximum of 8 inches.

The weight exceeded thirty ton per mile of line. The line crews were hampered in their work due to the sleet collecting on the wires at such a rapid rate, that as fast as a section of line was clear of sleet, it would rapidly collect and undo the work already completed.

One peculiarity of the storm was that in some sections no damage was done while in others the damage was excessive.

 

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