More than 15,000 without power in North Idaho and Eastern Washington

More than 10,000 homes and businesses in North Idaho were without power Christmas Eve because of widespread damage from heavy snowloads on trees and power lines. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 customers in Stevens and Spokane counties were without power.

Kootenai Electric Cooperative was reporting 5,991 customers without power Thursday morning. In addition, Avista Utilities said 5,554 of its customers, most of them in North Idaho, were in the dark. Power outages in the Newman Lake area were also reported.

Heavy snowfall the past few days has built up on trees, causing large branches and, in some cases, entire trees to take down electric lines.

Wednesday evening, KEC General Manager and CEO Doug Elliott issued a statement on the company’s website: “Today our system continued to take a beating as inch after inch of snow piled on our lines and surrounding trees, causing additional power outages across the region. Our amazing crews restored power to thousands of members today, but the relentless snow fall resulted in additional members without power.”

Kootenai Electric said it had crews working in Hayden Lake, Nettleton Gulch, Ramsey Road, Garwood, Setters, Bell Canyon and Hauser Lake.

The utility said it is preparing for more outages as even more snow falls, adding to the weight on trees and power lines.

“In terms of severity, KEC has not experienced a winter storm this devastating since the 1996 Ice Storm,” Elliott said. “While it’s too early to say, this storm might become more severe than that.”

Almost 2,000 Avista customers in Kootenai County and about 1,500 in Shoshone County were without service Thursday morning. Almost 800 were in the dark in Benewah County and 100 were affected in Bonner County, Avista said.

In Washington, more than 500 Avista customers in Stevens County were without service. An additional 5,761 Inland Power and Light customers were without power in Spokane County, and 41 Kootenai County customers were affected.

“We keep restoring power, and another tree falls down and then they go back out,” spokeswoman Jennifer Lutz said. “It’s not like the windstorm … this is kind of slow and steady.”

Lutz estimated customers would get power back between 24 and 48 hours after they first lost it.

Northern Lights Inc. said it had 2,963 customers affected by outages in the Sandpoint area and parts of Western Montana.