Rotten pole causes outage
<p>An Avista Utilities truck fixes the power line that caused a power outage to multiple businesses on Appleway Ave. on Tuesday afternoon.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - A rotten utility pole toppled Tuesday afternoon, causing outages along Appleway Avenue, a spokeswoman for Avista Utilities said.
Businesses in the area were forced to close temporarily.
Traffic lights along Government Way and Appleway were out and drivers had to negotiate busy, uncontrolled intersections.
Casey Fielder, a spokeswoman for Avista Corp., said the outage started at 2:30 p.m. and lasted approximately 20 minutes.
The damaged utility pole was just north of the Government Way-Appleway intersection and in front of the Liquor Store at 2611 N. Government Way.