Repairs continue on broken Southern Iowa natural gas line

Utility officials say a tree floating down the Nodaway River in southwest Iowa apparently is to blame for ripping up a natural gas pipeline late Sunday, cutting off the heat to some 45-hundred residents in several Taylor County towns. The gas is still off and Lenox gas superintendent Lynn Christensen says it likely will be for a while yet. He says the repair team was hoping to be done by noon and it’ll take several more hours to bring the gas line into service. Towns effected include: Lenox, Bedford and Clearfield. Christensen says the crew worked through the night to repair the line, just south of the town of Prescott. He says a lot of heavy equipment had to be trucked in to tackle the job because of the marshy area where the pipeline is located.Christensen says his crews and others will assist once the gas lines become recharged and ready to again deliver the product.Christensen is pleased about the complaint level and says residents are taking the outage in stride. He says people have called and asked a few questions, and everybody is really taking care of themselves.