Avista: Nearly 30,000 without power across Inland Northwest

Nearly 30,000 Avista customers across the Inland Northwest are without power Thursday following the overnight windstorm, according to Avista's outage map.

"As last night’s windstorm moves out of the region and winds begin to subside, Avista crews and staff are fully engaged in responding to widespread electric outages," a press release said. 

Assessment and restoration efforts began last night, and crews will continue working around the clock until all customers have power restored. At the height of the storm, 60,988 Avista electric customers were without power. As of 10:30 a.m. today, 33,299 Avista electric customers are without power, with more than 503 separate outage incidents.

All available Avista crews are working on the outages, including 41-line crews and 13 vegetation management crews.

Outages on Avista’s system began at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Across the region, fallen trees contacting electric lines and equipment have caused extensive damage to both transmission and distribution systems, the release said.

"As Avista’s restoration efforts continue, safety remains our top priority. The number of trees and branches down has created challenging conditions for crews to complete outage assessments and restoration," the release said. "As it is safe to do so, Avista continues to assess the extent of the damage and restore power. Assessments may take 24 hours or more in some cases, due to the widespread damage, and outages may last multiple days."

Power outages in North Idaho as of 10 a.m.:

Kootenai County: just over 8,700 are without power (12.47% of Avista customers)

Shoshone County: nearly all Avista customers (10,146; 99.7%) are without power.

Bonner County: 1,247 (6.69%) Avista customers are without power.

Benewah County: 3,838 (59.72%) Avista customers are without power. 

Avista serves 430,807 customers across North Idaho and eastern Washington.