Jeremy Fugleberg, Journal staff

Thursday's blizzard knocked down trees branches, power lines and poles, cutting electricity to more than 13,000 customers in western South Dakota, with thousands unlikely to see power until sometime today.

Black Hills Power reported about 7,000 customers without power in the Black Hills area, although 5,500 had service restored by 6 p.m. Lacreek Electric Association in Martin said an estimated 4,500 members were without electricity.

The storm knocked down an estimated 500 power poles and eight electric cooperatives in western South Dakota were requesting assistance, the South Dakota Rural Electric Association said in a statement. Without power, some West River cell towers went dark as their batteries ran down, said Tom Dravland, head of the South Dakota Department of Public Safety.

Linemen struggled even to find and assess the damage, as strong winds and heavy snow often eliminated visibility and molded drifts that sometimes topped out at 6 feet.

Black Hills Power spokesman Mutch Usera dark and road access stopped progress for crews that still had 1,500 customers to reach in scattered areas from Rapid City to the Northern Hills.

About two-thirds of the 6,400 members of Martin-based Lacreek Electric Association were without power Thursday, said office manager Wanda Sterkel. Lacreek provides electricity to Bennett, Jackson, Shannon, Todd, and Mellette counties in South Dakota and Cherry County in Nebraska.

Grand Electric Cooperative Manager Jerry Reisenauer reported there were approximately 1,200 to 1,400 people without power in his territory in northwestern South Dakota.

"We do not know the extent of the damage," he said. "We're unable to get anywhere to find out. It will likely be Friday morning before crews can get out and start working on repairing the outages."

Reisenauer said the outages started late Wednesday night and continued through the night.

"The region hardest hit is everything from Highway 20 and south," he said. That includes rural residents of Bison, Maurine and Mud Butte, as well as some south and east of Buffalo.

"It's not going very well. The roads are so tough we can't get to places," said Dave Zwetzig, operations manager for Newell-based Butte Electric Cooperative, which stretches across Butte, Lawrence and southwestern Meade counties.

Butte Electric's home office is surviving on the electricity from a generator while crews fight the weather, Zwetzig said. He estimated 800-1,000 customers were without power, and about 50 poles were knocked down, along with transmission lines covered with several inches of ice. Areas without power include the Newell and Arpan area, and Vanocker Canyon southwest of Sturgis. In Vanocker Canyon, deep snow snapped trees off and they fell into power lines, said co-op manager Ken Wetz, who is stranded at a conference in Bismarck. Zwetzig said many customers first lost power Wednesday evening, and likely will a second night without power.

Wall-based West River Electric had about 200 customers without power scattered around the Black Hills area and east. Areas without power include parts of Bear Butte Valley, Box Elder and Wall, said Dave Semerad - branch manager of West River Electric's Rapid City office.

Mike Chase of Custer-based Black Hills Electric Cooperative says about 200 members lost power early Thursday, but almost all regained power except for about 50 homes in the central Black Hills. Other electric co-ops reporting outages include Moreau-Grand Electric Cooperative in Timber Lake, West Central Electric Cooperative in Murdo and West River Electric Association in Wall.

Crews from other South Dakota electrical cooperatives are heading west to help with the work. As crews at Black Hills Electric co-op become available, they'll also likely be sent to help some of the state's other electric co-ops, Chase said.

"The co-ops are very good about helping each other, so once we get back up, I imagine our crews will go and assist," Chase said.

About 1,000 MidContinent customers lost telephone service as the storm sliced through a fiber optic line somewhere between Sturgis and Spearfish. About 500 customers in the Rapid City area and another 500 in the Sturgis, Boulder Canyon and Whitewood areas lost their service.

While some 300 customers have their service again, the others likely won't get their telephone service back until power is restored and crews can access the cut fiber, said Tom Simmons, Senior Vice President of Public Policy for Midcontinent.

"The winds out there are driving us crazy," he said.

The Rapid City office of Knology was closed due to the storm, but a call to the office was answered by a recorded message that acknowledged the company was "currently experiencing issues" in the area and promised crews would fix the problems as soon as possible.

Lawrence County Journal staff reporter Tim Velder contributed to this article.

To contact Jeremy Fugleberg, call 605-394-8421 or e-mail Jeremy.fugleberg@rapidcityjournal.com