Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Power outage
COLTON - High winds early Wednesday morning knocked out power to hundreds of Avista Utilities customers across the Palouse region and much of Eastern Washington.
At press time, the Spokane-based utility was reporting 355 customers were without power from Colton to Johnson.
A second outage was reported south of Palouse, with 329 customers affected. In town, another 26 homes were without power.
"Crews are working as quickly and safely as possible to assess damage," the utility said in a press release.
Just across the Idaho border, another outage was affecting about 40 customers just north of Genesse.
Winds also brought down power lines in the Rosalia area, with eight different outages affecting 69 homes.
Tekoa, too, had a small outage with 38 customers without power. North of Tekoa, power was also out in areas near Latah, Spangle and Fairfield.
The outages came among sustained high winds across much of Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle.
Wind gusts reached upwards of 45 mph between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. Wednesday across the region, the Weather Service reported.
The winds toppled power poles and lines, the utility said. There was at least one report of a power pole down along Palouse Albion Road.
A High Wind Advisory for the region was in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. Sustained winds were expected to continue between 20-30 mph, the Weather Service reported. Winds were expected to diminish late Wednesday evening, leading to a calmer weather day Thursday.
At press time, there were no reports of damages.
Roger Harnack is the co-owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
Reader Comments(0)