A white - and cold - holiday for many

She's lived in North Idaho for 22 years, but Garwood resident Pam Brown doesn't remember ever being without power on Christmas.

This year, she and her husband had no electricity for four days leading up to the holiday, until their power was restored Christmas evening.

"Thank goodness we have a wood burner, I was able to keep that going," Brown said Saturday. "It was a trying four days."

The Browns and thousands of other North Idaho residents experienced power outages on Christmas Day thanks to the heavy snow and winter conditions. Avista external communications manager Sandra Hoye said she estimated about 3,500 customers were affected by outages on Christmas but "that changed periodically throughout the day."

Kootenai Electric Cooperative business development coordinator Melissa Newcomer reported that at 5:30 Christmas morning, 3,417 members were without power and by 8:30 Christmas night, the numbers had decreased to 1,370.

As of Saturday afternoon, Avista's website showed 558 customers without power in 39 outage areas from Sandpoint into the Silver Valley. KEC's outage map showed 627 outages from Bayview south to the Worley area with a high concentration in Twin Lakes.

"We now have 15 contracted crews in addition to our own crews working to restore power," Newcomer said. "It’s hard to pinpoint what areas were affected the most since the outages have been so wide spread. Some of the major areas included Hayden Lake, Athol, Hauser, Cougar Gulch, Riverview Drive, Harrison and Bayview. We’d like to re-emphasize to members that we are continuing to work around the clock until all power is restored. Our crews have made excellent progress and we are hoping the weather continues to cooperate."

Brown said she would like to give kudos to the line crews at KEC, who worked to restore her power.

"I know people get really frustrated with the power being out, but it's Mother Nature, what are you doing to do?" she said. "I do appreciate Kootenai Electric coming out there."

Many North Idaho friends and families are opening their homes to their loved ones to comfort them and keep them warm while their houses sit chilly and dark, awaiting power restoration. Sara Lewis of Post Falls said while her neighborhood has been faring well through windstorms and snowstorms, her parents, who live in the north Rimrock Road area in Hayden, have not been so lucky. Their power was out for two nights and wasn't restored until early Christmas morning.

"I think they’ve had a few outages since the windstorm. I think it's mostly trees that are falling out there and causing the power outages," Lewis said. "They didn't have water, heat, anything, so they pretty much came over here (on Christmas Eve) to get warm and get cleaned up and all of that ... they didn't get power back on until 3 a.m. Christmas Day, so they went over to my grandma’s house and did some cooking too."

Hoye reported that by Saturday evening, 95 percent of Avista customers had power restored.

"We anticipate the remaining customers will have their power restored today (Saturday) barring any further weather related or accessibility issues," she said. "We are using helicopters in Kellogg and St. Maries to unload snow from trees and lines. Crews and contract crews will continue working throughout the day and evening to safely restore power to our customers. Poor road conditions added difficulty to restoration, especially in the St. Maries area."

KEC is also utilizing helicopters to "buzz" the snow off the lines.

"I think it’s been hard on a lot of people, especially with the wind storm and the snowstorm back to back," Lewis said. "It’s been a challenge."