PULLMAN, Wash. – Avista has restored natural gas services to an more than 26,000 customers who experienced an outage that stemmed from the damage on the Williams Pipeline.
Over 800 Avista crews, 300 mutual aid partners and around 60 private and local HVAC contractors continue to make progress on the restoration efforts. Avista President and Chief Operating Officer, Heather Rosentrater confirmed the company is on track to restore natural gas services to the remaining customers impacted by this historic outage by the end of the day Nov. 14.
“I want to thank our customers for their patience as we continue to make progress in restoring natural gas as quickly and safely as possible. We know this process is time consuming and challenging for customers,” said Rosentrater. “The support and appreciation from our communities has been inspirational for our employees along with the employees from eight other utilities and local HVAC contractors helping with this effort.”
Rosentrater emphasized the company’s ask of customers not to attempt to relight your own appliances. Avista will maintain greater staffing through the week to assist with the relight process where customers were out of town or not home when crews were in their neighborhood.
37,000 total people on the Palouse and in the Lewiston, Clarkston Valley area lost natural gas services on Nov. 8 after a third party damaged a pipeline owned by the Williams Companies. Avista said this was the largest natural gas outage in the utility company’s history.
For information on the relight process and 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.
