Power company preps for windstorm

With strong winds forecasted to begin Friday evening across the region, Avista is preparing to respond and is urging customers to prepare for potential storm damage and outages.

“Full leafy trees combined with strong winds, will bring the likelihood of outages from falling trees and limbs, causing downed power lines,” said a news release issued Wednesday by the power company.

The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement Tuesday saying a strong storm system is expected to move into the region Thursday night and continue to affect the area through early Saturday.

“The initial impact of this system will be widespread light to moderate snow. This will be followed by windy conditions with wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph expected from Friday night into Saturday morning,” said the statement. A few locations could see locally stronger winds.”

The weather service said another round of light to moderate snow is expected later over the weekend followed by colder temperatures for next week.

Avista warned Wednesday that should power outages occur due to sustained winds, “estimated restoration times are not likely to be available until the storm has passed and Avista is able to complete assessments, which may take 24 hours or more, depending on the extent of the damage.”

The power company said outage restoration times should be available on its outage map at myavista.com/outage.

“Customers are encouraged to watch the weather forecasts in their area,” said the Avista news release. “Customers residing in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene should expect to see impacts from this storm.”