The threat of a major winter storm and freezing temperatures January 20 – 23 led employees throughout GUC to prepare for what Mother Nature might bring our way. Out of an abundance of caution, we closed our offices on Friday, January 21st.

As it turned out, aside from some issues with the roads, there weren’t any major effects from the storm. Our customers did not experience any electric or natural gas outages. After the event on Sunday, the demand at the Water Treatment Plant increased quite a bit. At one point, we were producing at a rate just above 21 MGD (million gallons/day), which is near plant capacity. As a precaution, staff brought our wells online for added capacity. The demand was clearly coming from broken pipes at residences/commercial establishments, which was expected.

While many of us were tucked safely in our warm homes, some employees stayed behind to prepare for the weather, clean up after the storm had passed, and handle “business as usual” with operations. We want to take the opportunity to thank those of you who stayed behind to keep our systems (and ultimately our customers’ homes and businesses) up and running.