Nebraska

Nebraska PSC holds first hearing on 911 outages

Published

11 months ago

December 28, 2023

Nebraska PSC holds first hearing on 911 outages

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – During a hearing Thursday, Windstream’s operations president told the Nebraska Public Service Commission a third-party contractor accidentally cut the water line while installing a new natural gas line during the week of Aug. 28.

“As a result of this line cut, water leaked into Windstream’s transformer room located in the office basement,” Brad Hedrick said. “This caused a fire and small explosion, which resulted in a short to the ground wire on the main AC busbar, ultimately leading to the loss of commercial power.”

Hedrick said by Sept. 2, the backup generator the site switched over to failed, leading them to rely on backup batteries. After six hours, the batteries got critically low.

“Windstream’s operations and engineering team made the difficult decision to shut down one of the switches in an attempt to preserve power for the other two switches,” he said. “By also proactively shutting down a switch, Windstream was able to avoid an equipment crash, which would have resulted in nearly catastrophic failures for the switch and greatly extended the outage duration.”

That led to a shutdown of service in southeast Nebraska for around four-and-a-half hours. People weren’t able to make 911 calls during that time.

Hedrick told the Public Service Commission that Windstream has taken steps to address the issues that occurred.

“Windstream’s facilities management vendor, at Windstream’s direction, has since established a contract with NMC Cat located here in Lincoln. Should a backup megawatt generator be required in the future, we now have one just down the road.”

However, state 911 director David Sankey said services in the southeast part of the state were also experiencing disruptions in late November, causing 911 calls to fail for around an hour.

“Windstream has determined that the failure was the result of a manufacturer bug that prevented the meta switch from recovering automatically,” Hedrick said.

Windstream said it has since restored the alarms on devices to ensure timely reports for future outages, and that it’s updating the network route so traffic would follow an alternate path if something like this happens again.

Several 911 centers also experienced outages in September that the Public Service Commission said had to do with service interruptions with telecommunications provider Lumen. There will be a separate hearing on that Jan. 4.

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Nebraska

A chilly pattern of temperatures with a chance of snow showers on Wednesday coming up across Greater Nebraska

Published

2 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

A chilly pattern of temperatures with a chance of snow showers on Wednesday coming up across Greater Nebraska

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – We are in the middle of another dry weather pattern, as we have had only spotty rain chances through the last couple of weeks. It looks like that pattern will continue for at least another week. Expect some mild temperatures over the next few days, but it will really start to feel like late fall as cooler air works in as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday. We should have no major travel difficulties for the holiday, but we are watching a system that could give us some rain/snow showers for next Wednesday, but the moisture amounts should be light. Then for the following weekend, we will dry out even further, and really cool down with highs falling into the 30s with a brisk northerly wind.

It was partly cloudy and breezy for Sunday with highs near 42.

A chilly Sunday to finish the weekend.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

Monday sunny skies, and it will be cooler still with highs in the lower 40s. Tuesday partly cloudy skies and we will continue to be dry with highs in the upper 40s.

Sunny skies to start the week.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

Then for Wednesday, we will have our moisture chance this week; under partly cloudy skies and there is a 20% chance of rain/snow showers, with highs near 39.

A chance of snow showers on Wednesday.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

For Thanksgiving on Thursday, we are back to mostly sunny skies; much cooler with highs in the mid-upper 30s. Friday is mostly sunny and highs near 33. Saturday mostly sunny skies and highs near 32. Next Sunday mostly sunny skies and highs near 32.

A chilly pattern of temperatures coming up across Greater Nebraska.(Maxuser | Justin Craft)

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Nebraska Football Targeting California Commit

Published

10 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska Football Targeting California Commit

Nebraska is now a leader to land Aiden Manutai. Here is the latest.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers aren’t exactly done in the 2025 cycle as they have been searching for some flip targets. After actively searching, the Huskers may have found another one.

That guy is Aiden Manutai. Manutai is a Kahuku High School defensive back from Kahuku, Hawaii. He plays safety and is a listed four-star from ESPN. Manutai is committed to the California Golden Bears.

Manutai has been a target for the Cornhuskers for a bit of time and started to trend towards the Cornhuskers earlier this month. Manutai was originally interested in Nebraska along with five other schools before committing to the Bears.

Manutai did not make a trip to Lincoln this weekend, which is a good sign for the Golden Bears. However, the Cornhuskers are in a good spot despite this visit not happening. The Huskers made their first bowl game in years which is a positive sign for any recruit.

Manutai is also one of many recruits who were influenced by the addition of Dawson Merritt, who recently flipped from Alabama to Nebraska. Will Manutai be the next flip for the Big Red?

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Analytics Review: Nebraska Football vs. Wisconsin

Published

18 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Analytics Review: Nebraska Football vs. Wisconsin

It was an unseasonably nice afternoon in Memorial Stadium. And no, I’m not talking about temperatures in the high 50s for the final home game. In his second game as offensive coordinator, Dana Holgorsen’s offense exploded for arguably the Nebraska offense’s best game under Matt Rhule. Dylan Raiola played his best game, throwing for over 290 yards with no sacks and no turnovers. For the first time all season, I’d say the Huskers played well in all three phases of the game, and that was enough to send them bowling this December.

The story of this game was the Huskers offense. Emmett Johnson became Nebraska’s second 100-yard running back of the Matt Rhule era, joining Anthony Grant last season against Louisiana Tech. The Huskers had just two of their runs “stuffed” (a run for 0 or fewer yards) on their way to their second-best rushing output this season.

I was struck by the blocking effort in this game. Jahmal Banks held his block on the edge until Dante Dowdell crossed the goal line. Linemen were pulling and still blocking ten yards downfield, helping players fight for extra yards. That type of extra effort made this a special night for the offense.

Overall stat tables for Nebraska vs. Wisconsin. / Game On Paper

The Husker’s offense also dominated the control of the ball. The Nebraska offense was built on methodical drives. Even if you remove Nebraska’s two explosive plays, the Huskers offense still managed an EPA of 3.88. This was the first game all season where Nebraska’s non-explosive plays went for a positive EPA.

Special teams was also a big positive for the Huskers in this game. Nebraska’s special teams performed 12.5 points better than Wisconsin’s this game. This was just the second time this season that Nebraska’s special teams unit was a net positive (Ohio State, 2.86 EPA). John Hohl’s 14 points were the most by a kicker in the Matt Rhule era.

The defense still had its concerning moments this game. Wisconsin performed in the 90th percentile or better in many offensive statistics, including its seven explosive plays. These big plays are a cause for concern against Iowa, as the Wisconsin offense is one of the worst teams in the country in generating explosive plays, at just 5.8%. The Nebraska defense was stout on crucial plays, allowing just a 30% 3rd-down success rate and a 33% red zone success rate.

Biggest plays of the game, by absolute EPA. / Game On Paper

Going into this game, Nebraska lost nine straight games after winning number five and ten consecutive games to Wisconsin. Many people on social media want to make fun of Nebraska fans for storming the field after getting to bowl eligibility. I’m happy these people can enjoy their laughs while they can. The Matt Rhule rebuild is running on schedule, and we all know what year three looks like for him.

Through 11 games, the Nebraska skill position group is the youngest in college football. The extra practice to build chemistry with each other and get more practice reps running Holgorsen’s offense is invaluable. The 2024 seniors won much less than most in Lincoln would’ve liked. But as they walked off the field for the final time, they put Nebraska football on a new trajectory.

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