Utility provides quick response

Power outages wreak havoc on our day-to-day, especially at 5 p.m., when everyone is trying to get home, get dinners ready and get kids settled.

A brief, but strong thunderstorm Thursday spread some of that havoc for about 3,400 residents of Poplar Bluff. That’s a little over a third of the customers for Municipal Utilities.

The outage was correct for almost every in 45 minutes. Crews responded quickly to determine the problem — a lightning strike took out part of the east loop of the system. The damaged parts were replaced and power was restored.

Poplar Bluff is fortunate to have a utility that responds so quickly, and in fact, has won multiple awards for keeping 99.9906% of its outages to under one hour.

A professional group representing utilities in Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas has repeatedly praised Poplar Bluff for its locally-owned electric system.

That is a decision that was made by community leaders more than a century ago, when the lights were turned on for the first time at our electric generating plant.

Citywide electric usage has also almost quadrupled in the past half-century alone, according to utility figures.

That’s a number that makes us even more grateful for the quick response of electric crews, who are often making repairs in the very weather that caused the problem.

— Daily American Republic