BRAHAM, MN - High winds and lightning caused more than 10,000 members across the ECE system to be without power as trees toppled by high winds took down lines and lightning damaged electrical equipment.

The first outage calls were received around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. Outage numbers continued to rise through the night even though all available crews were called out. Areas hardest hit were Mora, MN, Ogilvie, MN, and Pine City, MN. By 9 a.m. today, ECE's system control reported just over 500 members were without power.

"ECE would like to thank its members for their patience and extend our sincere gratitude to our neighboring cooperatives Connexus Energy, Mille Lacs Energy and Polk Burnett for their assistance," said Garry Bye, ECE president and CEO.

"One of the benefits of being a cooperative is sharing resources and this outage was a great example of cooperatives sharing their resources to help one another," Garry added.

Outages are estimated to continue and ECE crews will work through the night, if necessary, to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. We urge members to report outages by calling 1-800-254-7944.