Downed power lines restored

COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai Electric Cooperative and Avista restored the remaining power lines Tuesday that were knocked out of commission during Monday's wind storm, both companies said.

Around 25,000 customers were left in the dark at some point during the storm, but crews for both businesses worked through Monday night into Tuesday morning and all power was back up by Tuesday afternoon.

"We had a pretty mild winter as far as weather goes," said Erika Neff, KEC spokeswoman, on Monday's storm that affected power for 6,600 residents. "This has been the worst storm so far, at least for this year."

Wind gusts, mixed with rain, hit near 60 mph across North Idaho and Eastern Washington on Monday.

That left 18,000 Avista customers - 2,000 in the Coeur d'Alene area - without power. Most of them were back on line by Monday night, while the rest of the customer lines were restored by Tuesday, said Laurine Jue, Avista spokeswoman.

Winds reached about 20 mph on Tuesday, but Coeur d'Alene won't see strong winds for the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service.

Neither company nor the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department reported any injuries due to the storm.