PULLMAN, Wash. – Avista has restored natural gas services to an estimated 15,000 customers affected by the largest natural gas outage in the utility company’s history.
Each Avista crew is averaging more than five relights an hour. Crews are seeing peaks of 900 relights an hour across the Lewiston, Clarkston Valley and the Palouse.
On Nov. 8, 37,000 people in Washington and Idaho lost natural gas services after a third party damaged a pipeline owned by the Williams Companies.
Over 800 Avista personnel were deployed, with over 300 mutual aid partners and around 60 private and local HVAC contractors working to continue restoration efforts in this historic event.
Avista expects to have all-natural gas services fully restored by the end of the day on Nov. 14. Avista will be available throughout the week for customers who weren’t home for the initial relight process.
The relight process involves each customer’s natural gas meter getting shut off; then, the distribution system will be repressurized. After that, crews will go door-to-door to turn meters back on and relight natural gas appliances.
An adult must be present to let the service person inside for relighting. Customers are asked not to leave doors to homes unlocked, and all field personnel conducting relights will have identification. Customers will be informed within 24 hours of their planned relight that crews are headed their way.
For information on when you can expect crews in your area, visit the Avista Website to view their restoration map for each region. This map shows the estimated time window when crews will be in each affected area.
