Going The Extra Mile To Restore Service

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

Heavy snowfalls in recent weeks have wreaked havoc all over the nation. But they have even had an impact on normally warm and weather-worry-free Moapa Valley. One company went to extremes to soften that impact for its local customers.
Unusually heavy snow blanketed the mountains around St. George on Monday, January 23. The weight of the snow on the power lines across Utah Hill snapped three telephone poles. This cut off power to the top of the mountain where several companies maintain relay towers.

Included in this relay equipment was Infowest, a local internet provider. With the Utah Hill site being the sole relay point for internet service to local Infowest, the loss of power on that isolated mountain pass caused a complete outage to the company’s internet customers in Moapa Valley.

At first, company officials were unaware of what had caused the outage. As they contacted other utilities that kept facilities on the hill they learned that they were all down. So they knew it had something to do with Utah Hill.
Rocky Mountain Power, who oversees the lines in that area, tried replacing fuses, but that did not restore power. Unable to discover the problem, power company crews attempted to ascend the hill. But they had to turn back because the steepness of the terrain and depth of the snow made it impassible for their equipment.

Infowest keeps a generator on the hill that is supposed to automatically come on if power fails. But since their service was down, it was clear that the generator had not come on.
Infowest President Kelly Nyberg, of St. George, decided that they couldn’t wait any longer for the power company. Many of their Moapa Valley customers rely on the internet to run their businesses. So they decided to attempt to discover the problem themselves.

Nyberg took fellow employee and snowmobile enthusiast Ryon Bowler, Director of Sales and Marketing, with him. The two suited up, grabbed a couple of snowmobiles, strapped a backup generator on, and took off up the mountain.
“It was a pretty harrowing trip,” Nyberg said. “The road is literally cut straight into the mountain with steep drop-offs. Then to top it all off we were going through six feet of snow. If it hadn’t been for Ryon’s experience and expertise, we wouldn’t have made it.”

Nyberg said that at one point on the trip, they passed the Rocky Mountain Power crew where they had stopped. But the Infowest snowmobiles managed to keep going.
Soon they came upon downed power lines and saw that three snapped power poles were the root of the problem.
“We assumed the wires were live because we didn’t know differently and weren’t going to test them,” Nyberg said. “So getting through them safely was a little tricky. We found a spot that was tall enough so we went under them and continued up the mountain.”

It wasn’t until later that Nyberg learned that Rocky Mountain Power had cut the power to the lines just in case.
Nyberg and Bowler were eventually able to reach the top. Then they realized why their generator had not started when the power went out. They found it completely buried under 5-6 feet of snow. After digging it out, they were able to start the original generator, restoring internet to their customers. The extra generator was not needed.

Internet service for Moapa Valley Infowest customers was restored late in the afternoon of Monday.
Nyberg and Bowler were the only ones from the various utilities who were able to make it to the top that day. On their way down, they picked up the Rocky Mountain Power crew and took them back up to where the snapped power poles were.

There the crew could see the cause of the problem and take some pictures to help analyze the scope of the damage.
Nyberg said that Infowest is committed to doing whatever is necessary to see that their customers receive the best service.
“We have towers on lots of hills in Utah and snow is sometimes part of that picture,” Nyberg said. “We keep snowmobiles just for this purpose. This case was about the hardest trip we’ve ever done and it took a lot of skill to keep on the road and keep going. But in the end we were able to restore service to our customers so it was worth it.”

Local Infowest provider Adam Hardy was impressed with the lengths the company took to get service restored to the valley.
“This company is awesome,” Hardy said. “They really do want to do everything they can to give their customers the best service possible. A few people have heard the story and come into the office to say thanks.”

Hardy said that the company is literally days away from completing a months long project of developing a redundant fiber line for its internet service in Moapa Valley. “Then we won’t ever have to face this problem again,” he said. “The connection will go into Las Vegas so we’ll always have a backup.”