(KLZA)--The majority of Falls City will be without power Thursday morning beginning at approximately 7:30.

Monday night,  Falls City Utility Superintendent Ray Luhring provided an update to the City Council addressing the reason for the problems and the need to fix the issues now. 

Luhring said that December 16 a squirrel chewed through an insulated cable causing it to fail.  The failed cable had to be removed which decreases the amperage the city can deliver.  With the loss of amperage, the City is now bumping up against the emergency operating limits of the emergency, temporary repairs made. 

A specialty crew has been hired to fix the problems. The City did not have the required materials on hand to make a permanent fix and the work will require specialty tools the City does not have. 

Criticism was rampant on social media because of the necessary power outage to fix the problem, taking place during the day which will cause businesses to close and a large part of the community to do without power.  Luhring said the hope was to make the repairs during the holiday break for schools but the materials had not arrived. 

Luhring explained the issue needs to be fixed  before a larger problem occurs which would mean a longer period of time, possibly 5 – 6 days,  without power issues arise.  He said we could not take the chance of that  happening when temperatures are zero or 5 below.

Many questioned why the December outage  occurred since the City spent nearly $12-million on a new generator to handle the city power needs in an emergency.  Luhring explains it was the loss of the ability to feed power to customers and not to produce power, or receive power from OPPD that caused the issue. Luhring called it a wise decision by the City and the Board of  Public Works to install the new generator.

Later this spring, OPPD will be making a number of repairs to their system requiring the City to generate its owner power for about 10 hours per day. 

The power outage is planned to begin at approximately 7:30 Thursday morning and will effect about two-thirds of the community.  Repairs could take up to eight hours or longer to complete. 

Falls City Public Schools will be closed Thursday.  Falls City Sacred Heart School will be open but there will be no bus service. 

The Richardson County Courthouse will be closed and the Falls City Senior Center will be closed. 

St. Paul's Lutheran Church at 20th and Towle Streets will be open Thursday for those needing a warm place to go.  You can use the church as a “warming station or electrical station.” You can use your medical devices there or even work from the church if you need to.  The church is handicap accessible.