Some North Idaho residents could remain without power until late tonight as Avista and Kootenai Electric crews continued restoration efforts.

As of Friday evening, around 6,200 Avista customers were without power in the Coeur d’Alene area — down from more than 8,600 the day before.

At the peak of the storm Wednesday, winds reached speeds of 70 mph and about 70,000 Avista customers were plunged into darkness.

“Both our transmission and delivery systems experienced severe damage, with hundreds of poles impacted and miles of our wire down,” said Heather Rosentrater, Avista’s senior vice president of energy delivery.

One power pole can take up to eight hours to replace.

Most of Avista’s initial assessments were completed Thursday, with the help of helicopter patrols that flew 151 miles of transmission lines.

More than 400 people worked directly on outage restoration Friday, including more than 60 Avista line crews.

The electric company estimated Friday that power would be restored to the Coeur d’Alene, Kellogg and St. Maries areas by 10 p.m. tonight.

Facing more than 100 different outage locations across their service territory Friday, Kootenai Electric crews focused on areas experiencing the largest outages, including Harrison, Hayden Lake, Twin Lakes and Hauser.

About 3,000 members were without power as of Friday evening.

KEC expected Nettleton Gulch and Harrison areas to have power restored Friday night. It expected Kidd Island and the back side of Hayden Lake to have power restored by Saturday night.

"We hope to have all other areas restored by Sunday night. This is our best estimate at this time, and it may change," wrote Erika Neff, KEC spokeswoman. "We understand this is frustrating and appreciate your patience. Please know we are using every available resource. We continue to add crews as they become available."