More Pend Oreille Residents Get Power, But New Storm May Halt Progress

The Pend Oreille County Public Utility District reduced the number of customers without electricity from about 500 to 200 Tuesday with the help of several contract crews that were released by Washington Water Power Co. in Spokane.

But PUD spokesman Mark Cauchy said it may take several more days to restore service completely because the remaining outages are widely scattered in the southern part of the county.

About 8 inches of new snow Monday night also was slowing repairs, and Cauchy worried that a new storm expected today may cause more outages.

“We are getting some desperate people who are running out of food and are cold,” Cauchy said.

The callers are being referred to the Pend Oreille County Emergency Services Department for help.

The outages occurred a week ago, when a storm dumped 12 to 18 inches of heavy, wet snow on the county. About 2,500 of the utility district’s 7,500 customers lost power. Repairs so far have cost $200,000 to $250,000, Cauchy said.

One to 3 inches of new snow was forecast for this afternoon in the Spokane area and northeast Washington. Another inch could fall in the region tonight. Heavier amounts are forecast for the mountains.

A powerful storm with strong winds was approaching the Washington coast on Tuesday, and was expected to arrive in Eastern Washington by this afternoon.

Forecasters said they believed the brunt of the storm would pass from western Washington to southeast Washington, brushing the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene region.

Winter storm watches were issued for North Idaho and the Washington Cascades today. In North Idaho, between one and two inches of snow was predicted for the valleys with heavier amounts in the mountains.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo