Ochtrup

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Ochtrup is a town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approx. 20 km west of Rheine and 20 km east of Enschede.

[edit] History

Firstly mentioned was „Ohtepe“ (the eastern Epe or Ostepe) in the year 1143. A church was firstly founded in 1203.

Between the 25. November and the 30. November 2005 the town was some days completely off the German power grid and became widely known. The cause for this disaster was a heavy snow storm with very wet snow, so the power poles and cables between Gronau and Ochtrup had a thick ice-layer on it. Due to the increased weight and the heavy storm most power poles crashed down. Emergency generators from all regions of Germany where installed and operated in the following days and weeks in Ochtrup. In spite of this, especially the farmers with milk cows around Ochtrup but also other companies had great financial disadvantages. Due to the very special weather circumstances, till today it is not known how much the very old power poles (some are over 65years old and were rusted) in this German region, made with a special steel, have caused this disaster. But newer power poles would performe surely better in such a weather. So in the following weeks it came to a conflict between North Rhine-Westphalia and RWE (the power company), if RWE has missed to invest in newer power poles or not.