Severe storms damage power poles, leave thousands without electricity

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —Storm damage spread across multiple cities in southeast Idaho Wednesday as severe thunderstorms brought damaging winds that toppled power poles and sent debris flying.

The National Weather Service issued multiple severe thunderstorm warnings around 9 a.m. for a line of storms moving through the area with damaging winds.

In Murtaugh, one power pole broke near a home along 2900 South. Emergency crews closed the road, and no one was hurt.

Two power poles went down along State Highway 25 in Minidoka County near Rupert. One pole was seen dangling in the wind as crews worked to repair the damage.

The storms also sent a trampoline flying out of someone’s yard, according to reports from the scene.

Of the 5,600 customers affected by outages Wednesday morning, 2,300 remained without power as of Wednesday afternoon.

While most power is expected to be restored Wednesday, areas like Pine and Featherville will be without electricity until Thursday.

“First thing to do is just kind of get back, stay back, call 911. Those calls go directly into our dispatch center in Boise, and then we’ll get somebody out as quickly as possible to make that scene safe,” said Joe Kendall, southeast regional manager at Idaho Power. “And then just continue to monitor the outage map. Don’t always assume that we know about the outage if there’s not something down or something that you can see.”

When power poles are damaged, workers must first disconnect them from the grid and redirect power before installing new poles.

Idaho Power asks customers to report power outages to 1-800-488-6151.