Avista crews work to restore power amid heavy snow

Since Wednesday, Avista crews have been working to restore power to about 61,000 customers originally impacted by Wednesday’s windstorm and the majority of assessments are complete.

 As of 10:40 a.m. today, about 8,242 customers are without power, with 344 active outages. About 86% of customers have been restored. Friday, all available resources continue working to restore customer outages, including over 47 Avista line crews, 14 contract crews and 16 vegetation management crews. Hundreds of Avista employees are also supporting the restoration effort, a press release said.

Wednesday’s windstorm caused widespread damage to Avista’s infrastructure. Strong winds caused trees and vegetation to come into contact with power lines and poles, pulling them to the ground. 

Once the wind stopped blowing, Avista crews patrolled hundreds of miles of line navigating treacherous terrain and fallen trees and debris. They patrolled by foot, vehicle, helicopter and drone to assess the damage, which helps speed up the restoration process, the release said.

 New snowfall poses additional challenges to restoration efforts. One power pole can take up to eight hours to replace. As power is restored throughout Avista’s service territory, crews will be reassigned to support the remaining restoration efforts until every customer has their power restored. 

"Given the magnitude of devastation in certain areas and the recent snowfall, we now know some customers in the Silver Valley and Colville may not have power until Sunday," a press release said.