UPDATE: Power restored in Ammon and Iona – cause of outage unknown
Published at | Updated at
UPDATE:
AMMON — The cause of a power outage in the Ammon and Iona areas on Saturday morning is still unknown, according to Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson Jona Whiteside.
The outage occurred at about 10 a.m., Whiteside told EastIdahoNews.com. About 50 are still without power at the time of this update, but the vast majority of customers have had their power restored.
Crews who responded to the outage didn’t find a cause, but the breaker was open, said Whiteside.
Typically, when a breaker opens or trips, personnel can reset it remotely. However, that isn’t the case for the time being, he said.
“Since we are in fire season, we have to physically go out and patrol it,” Whiteside said. He also noted that the settings for tripping a breakers are more sensitive during fire season.
“So, a tree branch or animal (touching a line) could trip a breaker,” he said. “This is to ensure we don’t have a spark that falls below and causes a fire.”
Whiteside added that, because crews must physically patrol the lines, it may take a little longer than usual for power to come back on than customers may be used to.
ORIGINAL STORY:
AMMON — Rocky Mountain Power has confirmed power outages in Ammon and Iona Saturday morning.
According to the Rocky Mountain Power website, about 2,000 customers are without power.
“We are investigating the cause,” the Facebook post reads, “and estimating power to be restored by 1 p.m.”
We will update this story as information becomes available.