SALT LAKE CITY — Crews with Rocky Mountain Power have their hands full trying to repair the damage caused by Tuesday’s massive windstorm.
More than 180,000 customers lost their electric service on Tuesday.
As of Wednesday night, about 80,000 were still in the dark.
“For the Salt Lake area, just for the wind event, by far the worst [I’ve seen],” said Travis Hiatt, a lineman with Rocky Mountain Power who has 26-years of experience. “On this substation, I received 3,000 messages and that’s a customer calling in and saying they’re out.”
Downed trees and branches caused hundreds of individual outages, leaving thousands without power.
Crews must reconstruct those lines individually to get customers back on the grid.
“It’s this picture, times repeat,” Hiatt said.
Crews from southern Utah and nearby states are traveling to the Salt Lake area to assist in the repair efforts.
Residents are waiting patiently as crews work double shifts to get the job done.
“I keep picking up my tv controller and turning it on out of reflex,” said Salt Lake City resident Mike Maddox. “There’s no difference from camping. You go to bed as soon as its dark.”
Rocky Mountain Power is warning customers that power may not be fully restored until Thursday.
