Thousands in Omaha still without power after last week's storm, site for spoiled food to open (2024)

Just more than 5,000 of the more than 218,000 customers who lost power following a July 31 storm remained without power as of Tuesday evening, according to the Omaha Public Power District.

OPPD said it received reports of scam callers claiming customers need to pay for reconnection as part of outage restoration work, which is not true. OPPD warned customers to be wary of possible scams and never provide personal or financial information during an unsolicited phone call.

Customers who have questions about their accounts or bill status or are in need of financial assistance can call 402-536-4131in the Omaha area or877-536-4131outside of the Omaha area.

Customers should also never allow someone claiming to be from OPPD into their residence if they do not provide identification, as OPPD employees always carry identification. Customers should also be wary of sales pitches from companies claiming to represent or work with OPPD.

City to operate food waste drop-off site

The City of Omaha's Under the Sink facility at4001 S. 120thSt.will be available through Saturday for those needing to dispose of spoiled food.

The site will operate a dumpster for food drop-off Wednesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a press release.

All food must be in clear or white trash bags. No dark bags will be accepted and the dumpster will be emptied daily.

Under the Sink will also maintain its regular services and hours.

Tree debris drop-off sites remain available

Five tree debris drop-off sites will remain open through Aug. 14 and are operating from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, according to the City of Omaha's website.

Those sites include Greenbrier Park, Hefflinger Park, Levi Carter Park, Al Veys Park and the football field at 156th and F Streets.

These sites are for green debris only and do not accept lawn bags.

The Towl Park location closed Aug. 4 after reaching capacity.

City to start curbside debris pickup Thursday

The City of Omaha will have free curbside tree debris pickup for city residents resuming Thursday morning. Debris should be placed as close to the curb as possible, according to the city's website.

The Public Works Department divided the City of Omaha into five sections and will work in all five simultaneously, usingskid loaders and dump trucks to complete the cleanup.

Paper yard waste bags can be filled with tree debris only and will be picked up during the curbside collection.

Those looking for faster collection of yard waste bags can purchase FCC pre-paid stickers at the locations listed on the Wasteline website. Bags with the stickers will be picked up on the regular FCC collection day.

The upside of a meltdown

Dairy Queen in Papillion found a tasty way to avoid a meltdown when power went out the night of the storm.

The 6:30 p.m. outage on Wednesday imperiled the ice cream treats in its freezers.

"We were going to lose everything," said Lindsey Ingram, who manages the store at 345 S. Washington St.

With no idea when power would be restored, and temperatures rising inside the freezers, Ingram decided not to desert the desserts.

She posted to Facebook a message inviting people to come to the store for free ice cream cakes and Dilly Bars.

The store got "bombarded," she said.

"Within five minutes the parking lot just swarmed with cars," she said.

They used flashlights to determine what flavor the cakes were. Some cakes were topped with the words "Happy Birthday" and others were blank.

The store gave away 108 ice cream cakes and close to 300 boxes of Dilly Bars, saving them from a mushy ending.

Within 45 minutes, all the treats were gone.

The power came back on about 2 a.m.

On Monday, employees were back to making cakes to rebuild their inventory.

Hiland Dairy played catch-up after losing power

The Hiland Dairy downtown Omaha plant lost power for about 15 hours, said Loren Rohl, the general manager. Because of the interruption, employees had to throw products away and sanitize the system before restarting production, Rohl said.

"We did lose quite a bit of time," he said.

Hiland runs approximately 75,000 to 80,000 gallons of milk a day through the plant six days a week, he said. When schools are in session, the plant produces about 1.5 million half pints of milk a week, he said.

Fortunately, most area schools were not in session when the storm hit.

He figured the plant wouldn't catch up entirely until the middle or end of the week.

"We have been able to get some product in from our sister plants to try to get us back on track, but it's still kind of a process. But we are operating. We're running."

Dry ice a hot commodity at Hy-Vee

In the days after the storm, there were some bestsellers at an Omaha Hy-Vee after the storm: dry ice, ice, bottled water, sport drinks, flashlights, batteries, candles.

The store sells dry ice but also uses it for online shopping orders. The product had been selling quickly as residents tried to keep frozen goods from thawing.

Beef and dairy products have also been popular items as residents replenish food lost in the outage, said Tally Mertes, manager at Hy-Vee grocery store at 96th and Q Streets.

Employees have been hearing from customers who had to toss out everything in the fridge, she said.

The store was a bit short on milk products for a time, she said.

The Hy-Vee stores have small emergency generators to power the bare necessities, she said.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Hy-Vee's corporate offices helped the Omaha-area stores by supplying them larger generators, she said.