  Distribution system (DS) communication failures following extreme events
often degrade monitoring and control functions, thus preventing the acquisition
of complete global DS component state information, on which existing
post-disaster DS restoration methods are based. This letter proposes methods of
inferring the states of DS components in the case of incomplete component state
information. By using the known DS information, the operating states of
unobservable DS branches and buses can be inferred, providing complete
information for DS performance restoration before full communication recovery
