MEDIA ALERT Avista Prepares for Approaching Storm The National Weather Service is predicting severe storms for the Inland Northwest today. Avista Utilities is assessing the status of crews, both our own line crews as well as contract crews that may be called into service. We have expedited the delivery of materials to restock those used in the two previous storms. We will keep a close eye on the weather and will assess the need for additional staff resources in our call center as the evening goes on. As always, for more information, please check the outage page on AvistaUtilities. Please encourage citizens to stay away from any downed power line and to call us at 1-800-227-9187 if power is lost or report it at avistautilities (mobile friendly). STORM SAFETY TIPS Prepare for an Outage -Keep emergency supplies on hand, including: -Flashlights with fresh batteries -Portable, battery-powered radio -Wind-up or battery-powered clock -Water and nonperishable food -Manual can opener Make sure cell phones and tablets are fully charged and remember, cordless phones will not work without electricity. Know how to manually open and close any electric garage doors, security doors or gates. Protect sensitive electric equipment, such as computers, VCRs and televisions, by installing surge protectors or other power protection devices. Make sure your smoke alarms and CO2 detectors have fresh batteries. Even those alarms that are wired to your homes electrical system should have a fresh back-up battery. Identify the operating requirements of gas equipment. During an outage, appliances with electronic ignitions will not work because electricity is needed to ignite the natural gas. In addition, appliances requiring fans or other electric devices to run (such as central heating units and gas clothes dryers) will not operate. It is important that customers with special medical needs or their caregivers take steps to ensure their safety by making arrangements ahead of time to prepare for potentially long-lasting interruptions in electric service. Plan ahead for storms or other service interruptions. DURING A POWER OUTAGE: Turn off all the appliances you think were on before your power went out. Unplug your electronic equipment, including computers. Leave a light or radio on to let you know when you have service again. Dont wire an emergency generator into your home electrical system unless you have a disconnect switch to separate your generated power from Avista’s distribution system. Backfeed into power lines could injure or kill a lineman working to get electricity restored. Use your generator only to run specific appliances, and locate it outside so poisonous carbon monoxide fumes dont enter your home. If you see a downed power line, stay away. Treat all power lines as if they are carrying electrical current, and never touch or move on. To help Avista crews working in a neighborhood know which homes have power, turn on your front porch light.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 22:25:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015