Blizzard Response Situation Report—as of:  1800 Wed, Nov. 30

Roads

• All interstates and state highways are open. 

Electrical

• Blizzard left more than 53,000 customers without power in SD.  As of this evening, that number has been reduced to 25,000 customers.—more than 28,000 customers (more than half) have had power restored. 
• Storm knocked out power to 148 communities and many rural areas.  On Tuesday, 71 communities had power restored.  On Wednesday, as crews shifted to more rural areas, 11 communities had power restored.  Rural areas in Brookings county, Lake county, Moody county, Minnehaha county, and the lower half of Codington county have also had power restored.   
• There are still 66 communities and numerous rural areas without power. 
• 19 of the state's 29 distribution cooperatives have experienced outages, and 18,000 of South Dakota's rural electric cooperative members are still without power. 
• East River Electric has restored power to ten distribution substations, leaving 35 substations with out power. 
• Xcel Power and Otter Tail Power each have less than a thousand customers without power.  
• As of Wed. at 2:00 p.m. (CT) power had been restored to 38 Health Care Facilities. There were 9 Health Care Facilities without power that continue to operate on generators. 
  • Two Hospitals: Wessington Springs and Faulkton 
  • Five Nursing Homes:  Bryant, Faulkton, Rosholt, Wessington Springs, Woonsocket 
  • Two Assisted Living Centers: Florence and Platte

Telecommunications

• According to the providers, almost all cellular phone service in South Dakota was restored by 5 pm this evening.  Currently, we know of only one tower that is not functional.  Power has been restored largely through the deployment of portable generators to the cell sites. 
• We continue to receive reports of hundreds of rural telephone customers that are without service.  Many of the central offices are being powered by generators, but the remote fiber optic infrastructure is without power.  Until power is restored in these rural areas, telephone service will not be available.

Shelters

• As of Wed. at 4:00 p.m. (CT), 68 different emergency shelters have been established by local communities.  Twenty-five of these shelters are housing a total of 1268 people.
• • The community of Sisseton is currently housing 515 people in four different shelters.

EOC operations

• The state Emergency Operations Center has operated around the clock since Monday morning. We have completed 129 requests for assistance.  
• Additionally, the EOC has received 114 separate offers of assistance to provide emergency equipment, supplies, and personnel. 
• This does not include the many instances of assistance and coordination that was and continues to be handled by local emergency management professionals.

National Guard Activity

• Over 50 South Dakota National Guardsman are currently serving on State Active Duty status. 
• The National Guard has undertaken over 40 missions to assist South Dakota citizens and communities with emergency response, health and life safety needs.

• 3 National Guard Armories are currently being utilized as shelters in Aberdeen, Webster and Watertown

Rural Water -- Have made significant progress in the past 48 hours.

• 18 generators have been distributed to rural and municipal water systems for the purpose of water distribution and supply.  Several (two to four) more generators will be distributed by the end of the tonight (Avon and Rosholt).