Spokane, Wash. Sept. 7, 2020, 2:00 p.m.: Substantial winds across Idaho and Washington today have caused power outages to approximately 33,000 Avista customers.

As the wind continues to blow, Avista is focused on assessing the extent of the damage to the electric system caused by the wind. Given this, estimated restoration times are currently unknown. There are certain factors that may cause these assessments to take some time, 24 hours or more. The wind is still blowing and outages are still occurring. Additionally, Avista’s system is currently operating under dry land mode, which is an approach that helps decrease the potential for wildfires and requires our teams to physically patrol certain rural and forested areas before the lines can be re-energized.

With assessments ongoing and widespread damage anticipated, customers should be prepared for a prolonged outage of 1-2 days and seek personal resources as needed. Once crews have been able to assess each area, we will provide updated restoration times for our customers.

Restoration process

To restore power in an outage, we focus on restoring power to critical infrastructure first, such as transmission lines and substations, and emergency facilities like hospitals. Once critical customers are restored, crews then work to make repairs that will restore power along impacted distribution feeder lines to a larger number of customers. This will leave some customers without power while their neighbors have been restored. Avista crews will come back through to restore individual outages in neighborhoods, which means customers may see service people in their neighborhoods multiple times.

What customers can do

Customers should report their outage at myavista.com/outage, through the outage app or by calling (800) 227-9187.

Customers can aid in the restoration process by checking their service equipment to identify any of the following scenarios.

• An overhead mast that is bent and pulled away from the house, causing a wire to hang.
• A bent mast broke the fitting where the wire connects to your electric meter.
• A broken meter fitting caused an arc or burned meter socket.

All of these repairs need to be made by a licensed electrician before we can safely restore power to the home.

If customers have received information that power has been restored in their area and their lights are still out, please contact Avista at (800) 227-9187.

Safety during an outage

We want our customers to stay safe. Customers should treat all power lines as if they are energized. Customers should stay away from any downed power lines, not attempt to remove limbs from downed or sagging power lines, and should not drive over power lines. If customers see a downed power line, they should call Avista at (800) 227-9187 immediately to report its location.

Avista suggests customers take the following steps during an outage:

• Turn off all the appliances that were on before the power went out.
• Unplug electronic equipment, including computers.
• Leave a light or radio on as an alert when power has been restored.
• Help Avista crews working in a neighborhood know which homes have power by turning on the front porch light.
• Do not wire an emergency generator into a home’s electrical system, unless there is a disconnect switch to separate generated power from Avista’s distribution system. Backfeed into power lines could injure or kill a lineman working to get electricity restored.
• Use a generator only to run specific appliances and locate it outside so poisonous carbon monoxide fumes do not enter the home.

Information about current outages, outage FAQs and safety during an outage can be found at myavista.com/outage.

Avista crews will continue working as quickly and as safely as possible to restore power to all of our customers.  We thank them for their patience.

About Avista Utilities
Avista Utilities is involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy. We provide energy services and electricity to 395,000 customers and natural gas to 364,000 customers in a service territory that covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.6 million.  Avista Utilities is an operating division of Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA). For more information, please visit www.myavista.com.

The Avista logo is a trademark of Avista Corporation.

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