Powerful storm left police stations powerless.

Several North Texans are bracing themselves for what could cause another issuance of rolling blackouts. The county was blanketed in several inches of snow on top of Tuesday's preexisting ice, calling for an increase of power to heat homes and businesses.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) issued rotating outages Wednesday knocking out power for several vital public service departments and thousands of homes across the region. According to ERCOT's website, rotating outages are controlled, temporary interruptions of electrical services initiated by utilities when ERCOT's reserve power supplies are exhausted. Utilities and transmission providers determine the location and scheduling of the rotating outages.

Rotating outages are the last step in a progressive series of emergency procedures that ERCOT follows according to market rules. ERCOT only calls for controlled rotating outages as a final fail-safe measure to avoid an uncontrolled blackout across the state, the site said.

Jason Erter, spokesperson with the Allen Police Department, said the department had to rely on backup generators to keep daily tasks functioning.

"We went to generator power [Wednesday]," he said. "We experienced two power outages, one in the morning and the other just before 1 p.m., with power remaining off until 7:30 in the evening. But we are not certain that it was a rolling blackout or for other reasons, like ice on power lines. It didn't affect operations in any way."

The Plano Police Department experienced several rolling blackouts Wednesday. Officer Rick McDonald said the department had four sessions.

"No emergency services were interrupted, and only office computers and desk stations were affected for the blackout period," he said. "We have numerous divisions that work out of headquarters but we also utilize air cards for connectivity if needed, as we do our backup generator systems. Dispatch is not part of the police department; they are at city hall, and I do not know what they may have experienced."

The Frisco Police Department escaped the blackouts, said Adam Henderson, department spokesperson.

"Our police department has backup power that can be supplied by generators here on site," he said.Ê"We did not experience any interruption in 911 service and were not otherwise affected by the rolling blackouts."

County residents were not as lucky as hundreds of homes were affected by outages.

McKinney resident Julie Wood experienced two blackouts on Wednesday, the first lasting only half an hour but shorting out her clothes dryer.

The second, coming about an hour later, did much more damage.

"My son heard five big pops," she said. "Our power was out for almost three hours. We had no heat and had to bring in our propane heaters from the garage."

Wood also had to close off the living room of her home to lock the heat in. She said she and her children had to sit under blankets to keep warm until her power came back on. When it did, she was in for a big surprise.

"When the power came back on, we found that three of our TVs, my sons XBOX and the computer were all shot," she said. "You could literally hear the surge frying stuff. There's at least a couple thousand dollars in damages due to the power surges Ñ money that we don't have to spend on new electronics."

With the heavy snow and more falling, residents are encouraged to limit their electricity use by turning off all appliances, lights and other electrical equipment and leaving a task light on to determine when power has been restored, according to ERCOTs website.