Effort helps electric crews restore potable drinking water for residential area
HARWOOD, N.D. — The North Dakota National Guard used one of its trucks to push through knee-high deep overland flooding on Tuesday to deliver a much-needed generator to power up a failing water pump station in a rural residential subdivision near here.
The pump station provides potable water for Lake Shure Estates, a residential area of about 25 homes southwest of Harwood.
According to 1st Lt. Collin J. Kappenman, National Guard Soldiers with the 815th Engineer Company, out of Lisbon and Jamestown, N.D., all members of a quick reaction force in Harwood, reconnoitered the route to the Lake Shure area on Monday to see if it would be feasible to haul the 1,000-pound generator through 18 inches of water over the roadway.
Kappenman said the recon showed the generator, provided by Butler Machinery, could be delivered but not by civilian equipment used by Cass County Electric.
As night fell over the area, it was decided that the Guard would haul the massive generator on the back of a Cass County Electric trailer and pulled by a Guard Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) early the next morning.
Once the generator was in place, crews from Cass County Electric got it up and running, restored power to the pump station and drinkable water was flowing again in Lake Shure Estates.
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Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the North Dakota National Guard has mobilized more than 3,500 Soldiers and more than 1,800 Airmen in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Currently, about a dozen North Dakota Guardsmen are serving overseas while more than 4,000 remain in the state for emergency response and national defense. For every 10,000 citizens in North Dakota, 65 serve in the North Dakota National Guard, a rate that’s more than four times the national average.