Suppliers Plug Away Electrical Supply Shops Scramble To Provide All Parts Necessary To Restore Power

Electrical supply shops and utility warehouses were jumping Friday as repair crews threw everything from transformers to meter bases into the Inland Northwest’s crippled power system.

Shipments of parts were arriving from as far away as Florida and Texas to replace gear ripped away by Tuesday’s ice storm.

Even basic items like AA batteries were cleared off shelves for use in pen flashlights, radios and voltage testers.

Although no essentials disappeared entirely, there were some close calls.

Catherine Parochetti, spokeswoman for Kootenai Electric Cooperative Inc., said a parts shipment that arrived Friday morning averted a work slowdown.

“If our order had not come in today, that would have been an issue,” she said.

Because of the power outage, she said, the company’s Spokane supplier could not track the pre-storm order, so there was some confusion about its whereabouts until the goods arrived.

Friday afternoon, officials at Washington Water Power Co. were keeping a vigil for a flight from Salt Lake City, which was having its own weather problems.

Aboard were boxes of hardware that procurement manager Kathy Davis said have been harder to round up than wire and other more visible components of its delivery system.

Transformers were not a problem, she said. In fact, the utility gave a spare to the city of Cheney.

“We haven’t had any crews standing by waiting for materials,” Davis said.

Inland Power & Light Co. Assistant Manager Dave Clinton said there have been sporadic shortages of small tools and flashlights, but nothing that hasn’t been solved with an emergency supply run.

Davis said local suppliers deserve much of the credit for having - or getting - everything required. Not that it hasn’t been a scramble.

“They’re calling me every hour on the hour,” joked Randy Jeffus of Wesco, a Spokane electrical supply company. “It’s just been crazy.”

Meter bases were the most sought-after items, he said. Jeffus said the bases, used to replace those pulled away from homes, disappear as soon as they arrive on his loading dock.

At Western States Electric, Dave Brower said the contractors and utilities he supplies were in good shape for a normal winter.

Then the ice storm triggered a nationwide scavenger hunt, he said. “We’ve been airfreighting stuff from all over the country.”

Many items, said Jim Williams of Graybar Electric Co. Inc., are odds and ends - like lugs for wire ends - that most people wouldn’t recognize.

“They’re important when you’re putting the system back,” he said.

Williams said Graybar employees have been up as early as 3 a.m. hunting parts for WWP and the contractors helping restore utility service.

“The amount of material they’re going through is beyond the stock for normal emergencies,” he said.

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