Entire City Of Paynesville Without Natural Gas After Crews Strike Gas Line

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Families in Paynesville are forced to get through the night without heat.

Crews are working Tuesday night to restore gas service to homes after a construction crew struck a natural gas line.

All of Paynesville is without natural gas Tuesday night. That includes homes and businesses, totaling 1,400 customers. Mayor Jeff Thompson told WCCO that fortunately the weather is not too cold as many can't turn on their heat.

Here's the tricky part, and what's going to take a while: CenterPoint Energy crews have to go door-to-door to manually turn the gas off before they can repair the line. The company tells WCCO it was a third party doing work for someone else that struck a 6-inch steel line, which happened late Tuesday afternoon.

Since then, CenterPoint called in workers from around the region. Once the gas is turned off to all the homes, then crews can begin the actual repair work.

After the repair work is done, crews will again have to go home by home to turn the gas back on. This time, they'll have to go inside the home or business.

Repairs will be done overnight, with natural gas service hopefully restored here in Paynesville by midday Wednesday.