Power knocked out to thousands in Connell and two counties

A power outage darkened much of north Franklin County on Tuesday morning.

Connell, Kahlotus, Basin City, Eltopia and the Ringgold areas of Franklin County lost power around 7:30 a.m. because of a problem with a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line, according to Franklin PUD and the North Franklin School District.

The outage reached into Adams County as well, darkening Othello and Washtucna.

While it’s uncertain what caused the problem with the Benton-Scootney transmission line, crews restored electricity in 70 minutes, said David Wilson with the Bonneville Power Authority.

The outage came as students were heading to class at North Franklin schools.

Administrators said it was too late to cancel classes and parents might not be home if they turned the buses around.

While they formed plans to send the students home, the power returned around 8:50 a.m.

“North Franklin School District will resume business as usual,” the district said. “If your child wasn’t able to come to school due to the outage, please contact the school and let them know.”

PUD officials have not said how many people the outage affected.

This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 9:34 AM.