Officials with MidAmerican Energy, on Friday, said crews were able to restore service within 24 hours to 99.9% of the 90,000 customers impacted by this week’s string of severe thunderstorms. The severe weather produced storms with wind gusts of more than 60 miles per hour and significant lightning causing large pockets of substantial tree damage, downed wires and broken poles.

MidAmerican and contractor line crews, along with tree crews, began restoration immediately, making safe and efficient progress as each round of weather passed. Early in the week, when the forecast for potential weather impacts became clear, additional contractor crews were secured from Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. MidAmerican crews from nonimpacted areas also traveled to support the restoration efforts in the Sioux City, Council Bluffs and Des Moines areas.

“Despite an extremely active storm season this year, MidAmerican crews and contractors have worked tirelessly to quickly and safely restore power to our customers,” Nick Nation, senior vice president of delivery at MidAmerican, said. “We understand how much our customers count on us to get the job done, and we are prepared to do just that, even when there is a new storm every night.”

“While we were able to restore nearly every customer’s power in less than 24 hours, multiple storms throughout the week hitting the same areas takes its toll, and we are so grateful to our customers for their patience and support of our crews,” he continued.

According to National Weather Service data, this year Iowa has had the second-most tornadoes and severe thunderstorms recorded to date.