For Many Residents, Outage Will Continue

When a Washington Water Power crew pulled into her driveway Monday, Ponderosa resident Susie Holland got on the phone and called her husband.

“They’re here!” she said, with joy only a person living without heat and electricity since last Tuesday would understand.

Moments later, the utility crew backed out of her driveway and headed to the Painted Hills area - where crews had already restored power earlier that day.

Those two neighborhoods are vying for the attention of power workers as residents there try to deal with yet another cold, dark night.

“They’re definitely working hard,” said Holland. “What’s one more night for me?”

Holland and her neighbor Gene Brown said they were hoping crews would restore their power by Thanksgiving.

On Sunday, five days after the ice storm, WWP announced that it likely would take until this weekend to get Painted Hills and Ponderosa powered up.

Fallen pine trees tore up the electrical systems that run through residents’ back yards. Getting access to the yards is the biggest challenge, workers told Holland. Extra tall ladders had to be ordered before crews could even attempt to begin to put the systems back together.

“I think WWP was preparing us for the worst by saying it’d be a week longer,” said Brown. To keep sane, the two neighbors talk every day between the broken boughs of their ponderosa pines. People across the street have had power for a couple of days and opened their homes to to neighbors struggling to get by.

“They’ve been so wonderful,” said Brown, whose roof has a gaping hole left by a pine that crashed into his house last week.

Clean clothes, hot meals and warm homes are some of the things Brown and Holland said they haven’t gone without.

Painted Hills residents know what that’s like, too. Neighbors are sharing generators to keep each other’s homes warm and food frozen. Others pile all the neighborhood kids into one home to watch a movie or play video games. One resident, Rob Mayfield, 14, lives with his grandparents and mother. They have been eating soup warmed over a small portable heater.

The teenager has been going over to friends’ homes to hang out, talk or go sledding.

“It’s getting pretty annoying,” he said. On Monday, he was happy to have school open again.

Utility crews have been busy in the area but are having a tough time working around trees that continue to crack and fall. Power was restored to some homes Sunday. Then, early Monday morning, trees fell and snapped the lines that had been reconnected.

One resident, who asked that her name not be used, said her power was on long enough to freeze foods that started to thaw and to heat her two story home.

Without knowing whether the family will have power by Thanksgiving, the woman said her holiday plans have been put on hold.

“We were going to cook here and have family and neighbors over,” the woman said. Instead of roasting a turkey, she said they might grill some chicken on the barbeque.

“But, we’ll probably end up going someplace nice downtown,” she said.

Over in Ponderosa, Holland kind of laughed at the prospects of a holiday without power.

“Knowing it’s going to end - that’s what helps me handle this,” said Holland. But if the power’s not on by Thanksgiving, Holland’s heading to her parents for dinner.

“I probably lucked out,” she said. “Now I won’t have to cook a turkey.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo