Black Hills Energy restores natural gas service to customers in Lawrence

Lawrence, Kan. April 12, 2023 – With more than 10 technicians working tirelessly to restore gas service to customers in the Marvonne Meadows neighborhood of Lawrence, Black Hills Energy made considerable progress after a natural gas main was damaged this afternoon. By 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, the company restored gas service to more than 140 customers, nearly 95% of customers who had lost service.

Work to restore service to the remaining customers will continue tomorrow, with technicians working to relight residential customers’ homes beginning in the morning. At the current rate of progress, Black Hills Energy estimates that nearly all customers will have gas service restored Thursday. 

While projections of completing nearly all relights Thursday are based on progress thus far, many factors could impact the completion of the task, including difficulty connecting with customers, which is necessary in order to enter a residence to relight and test appliances.

Customers can find additional information on the Black Hills Energy website at blackhillsenergy.com/lawrenceks.
 
Please remember the following safety tips:

• Be alert for leaking natural gas. If you smell natural gas, leave the building or area immediately and tell others to leave, too. 
• After you’re safely away from the area, call 911 and our emergency number at 888-890-5554. Never assume someone else has reported a natural gas leak. Alert your neighbors. 
• Do not turn on lights, ignite a flame, use a cell phone or use anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator. 
• Never attempt to repair a natural gas leak, and do not attempt to turn natural gas valves on or off. 

? April 12, 9:30 p.m. CDT - We’re happy to share that our crews have successfully restored nearly all of the Marvonne Meadows customers impacted by this service interruption.

For the few customers we were unable to contact, if you are still without service, please call us at 888-890-5554 and a technician will be scheduled to return.

If you didn’t hear from us during this outage event via phone, text or email, please take a moment to verify your contact information by logging into your online account and updating your communication preferences. We encourage all customers to update their information so we can be in contact when necessary.

Our customers are extremely important to us and we’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you to each of you for your patience.

? April 12, 8:30 p.m. CDT - Our crews are continuing to go door to door to relight appliances and are working into the evening to restore service. At this time, over 75% of customers impacted by this outage have been restored.

It’s extremely important that you do not attempt to relight any pilot lights on your own. Our highly trained technicians will take care of this for you. They'll also be leaving a door tag at any unoccupied homes or businesses with additional instructions for requesting a relight.

Thank you for your continued cooperation and understanding as we work to resolve this issue and restore your service as quickly and safely as possible.

? April 12, 4 p.m. CDT - Black Hills Energy technicians are working to complete a multistep process to restore service as quickly and safely as possible after a natural gas main serving customers in the area of Marvonne Meadows was damaged this afternoon. To safely make repairs, technicians will go door to door turning off service to approximately 150 impacted natural gas meters. Our technicians will then complete any needed repairs and restore system pressure. Immediately following repairs and restoration of system pressure, technicians will begin relighting residential customers’ homes.

We’ll continue sharing updates on the repair progress and anticipated timelines for restoration on our website, Facebook and Twitter.
 
Please remember the following safety tips:

• Be alert for leaking natural gas. If you smell natural gas, leave the building or area immediately and tell others to leave, too.  
• After you’re safely away from the area, call 911 and our emergency number at 888-890-5554. Never assume someone else has reported a natural gas leak. Alert your neighbors.  
• Do not turn on lights, ignite a flame, use a cell phone or use anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator while inside your home or any building.  
• Never attempt to repair a natural gas leak, and do not attempt to turn natural gas valves on or off.