As efforts to restore power continue following Lane County’s recent ice storm, local utility companies warn that some homeowners may have to do their own repairs.
Springfield Utility Board makes progress on restoring power
At a press conference Friday morning, leaders with the Springfield Utility Board said they’re making steady progress in restoring services. They estimated that 3,500 customers were without power, down from 15,000 on Monday.
The utility said it’s now begun fixing feeder lines throughout the city, and it expects nearly all of those to be energized by the end of the day.
However, officials said there may still be damage on private property that isn’t the utility’s responsibility, and some customers will have to hire an electrician before they’re allowed back on the grid.
“The goal there is safety,” said SUB Electric Division Director Sanjeev King. “It's really important that those facilities are put together properly, so that when we heat up homes, they're able to have electricity and be safe.”
SUB is recommending that affected customers take advantage of insurance claims and the potential for federal disaster aid.
General Manager Jeff Nelson said he understands the community is frustrated by outages, but he’s asking the public not to take it out on the utility’s employees.
“We've had near misses for our employees with the icy roads and falling debris,” said SUB Electric Division Director Sanjeev King. “So what may appear to be slow is trying to be safe, include a lot of communication work as a team, and be cautious.”
SUB's boil water notice lifted Friday at 5pm
The boil water advisory in SUB’s West system was lifted earlier in the day, and the advisory for the East system was lifted at 5 pm, after the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) returned test results showing the water was healthy to drink.
All customers in the affected areas may return to using tap water for all uses, including drinking, without boiling.
EWEB continues work to restore power to its customers
EWEBis working to restore power to its customers in the McKenzie River Valley. The utility says Bonneville Power Administration on Thursday reenergized its power lines upriver.
That allowed EWEB crews to restore power to their Holden Substation which feeds Walterville and Vida. That, in turn, allows crews to repair and restore power to people further upriver.
As of midday Friday about 7,600 EWEB customers were without power.
That’s down from the peak of more than 24,000 outages on Wednesday morning.
Pacific Power expects to power restored to most customers Friday night
Pacific Power says it was down to 900 customers without power in the Willamette Valley as of 3:00 pm Friday.
The utility anticipates that most customers will have service restored by Friday evening, with some outages possibly extending into Saturday depending on the severity of damage encountered.
Over this event, which came in two waves, customer outages peaked at about 46,000 on Saturday and again at about 30,000 on Wednesday. In total, approximately 146,000 customers experienced one or more outages during the weather event. During the event, Pacific Power had 858 internal and contract resources working to restore power.
Visit pacificpower.net/outages for a map showing current restoration estimates.
