BROKEN BOW, Neb. — After more than 33 hours without electricity, power was fully restored to Broken Bow, bringing relief to hundreds of residents and businesses that endured freezing temperatures and a night in emergency shelters.

City Administrator Dave Schmidt announced Friday afternoon Custer Public Power District and Nebraska Public Power District had successfully restored power to the entire community following an explosion at the Broken Bow Municipal Power Plant early Thursday morning.

The explosion, which occurred at 6:17 a.m. at the plant on South B Street, knocked out power citywide and prompted an emergency declaration. Two city employees were inside the facility at the time and sustained minor injuries. They were taken to Melham Memorial Medical Center as a precaution and later released.

Following the blast, the Broken Bow Electric Department rerouted power to most areas, but several neighborhoods remained without electricity for more than a day as crews worked to implement temporary systems. The outage also disrupted the city’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which automates water service controls, forcing crews to manually maintain water operations.

While power is fully restored, emergency crews remain at the power plant to monitor and extinguish lingering hot spots from the explosion. Officials say the cause of the explosion remains under investigation, but initial assessments suggest extreme cold may have put significant stress on the power system.

The extent of damage to the power plant is still being evaluated, but city officials believe it is likely significant. No neighboring structures were damaged, and no first responders were injured during the emergency response.