High winds linked to power outages

High winds from a thunderstorm Tuesday evening triggered a large-scale power outage that affected thousands of people in Mountain Home and surrounding communities.

The storm, which stretched across western Elmore County and southeastern Ada and Canyon counties, caused tree limbs to fall on two electrical feeder lines near Mountain Home, triggering an outage around 5 p.m., said Idaho Power spokesperson Julie Stutts.

Reports from Idaho Power indicated that the outage stretched across the Mountain Home area and included an area between Canyon Creek Road, Rocky Butte, Prairie Road, Smith Creek and Highway 20 as well as areas north of the interstate.

An estimated 3,000 customers remained without power for several hours as crews worked to repair the lines, Stutts said. Power was restored to a number of customers by 11 p.m. Tuesday with service restored to the remaining homes and businesses at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

In addition, the storm was responsible for a separate outage that knocked out power to approximately 130 customers in Hammett, Bruneau. and Indian Cove. That outage was reported around 5 p.m. Tuesday after high winds pushed to power lines together with crews restoring service at 6:15 p.m.