Power back up in Kennewick after widespread power outage in Benton County

Electricity was out for most of Kennewick after an almost hour-long power outage Thursday afternoon.

Benton PUD reported a widespread outage at 3:18 p.m. affecting five to six substations.

About 20,000 homes and businesses across its service area lost power.

An excavator hit a Benton PUD line near Gum Street, according to the PUD.

Some homes in the Gum Street neighborhood remained without power at 4:15 p.m., but Benton PUD had restored their power by 5 p.m.

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The outage included most of Kennewick and parts of Finley, but not Prosser, according to the public utility district.

The outage shut down traffic lights and closed businesses.

Kennewick police reminded people to treat non-functioning traffic lights like a four-way stop sign and stop for other traffic before proceeding through the intersection.

Without traffic lights, vehicles slowed to a crawl along sections of Highway 395

Along with traffic problems, people stood outside of businesses in Kennewick’s downtown as they waited for the power to come back on.

Kennewick police asked residents to only call 911 in an emergency and also not to call non-emergency dispatch about traffic lights being out.

Benton County Emergency Services was slammed with calls during the outage.

A Richland car dealership offered a helping hand if people needed to charge their phones.

This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 3:34 PM.