COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Thousands of North Idaho residents remain without power Friday after Thursday night’s storm damaged electrical lines across the region.
Northern Lights Electric Cooperative says more than 5,000 customers still lack power as of Friday evening. More than 10,000 people lost power because of the storm, and customers may have to go without power well into the weekend.
The company expects it will take another one or two days before everyone has their power restored.
Northern Lights usually has 30 people working to fix lines, but because of how widespread the outages are, it called in help from other local power companies. That doubled the amount of linemen available, and they have all been working around the clock since the outages began.
Annie Terracciano, general manager of Northern Lights, said crews are focusing on the hardest-hit areas.
“We’re really focusing all the way from Sandpoint to Bonners Ferry, and then in the Priest Lake area,” Terracciano said. “I would say right now we feel that Bonners Ferry is the most heavily damaged area.”
Southern Boundary County was hit especially hard in the storm. The county’s emergency management department received more than 70 911 calls about downed trees.
Earlier, Terracciano explained the challenges crews face clearing debris before repairs can begin.
“We have ginormous trees here so we have to clear those trees first,” Terracciano said. “In some cases there are 30 trees down in one area. They have to clear the trees before they can fix the lines.”
Northern Lights encourages customers to check its outage map on its website and Facebook page for the latest updates on how crews are making progress over the weekend.
The company warns people to stay away from any downed power lines.
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