Update: Tri-Cities neighborhood power outages hit during intense heat wave, lasts hours
Households in two Richland neighborhoods lost power Wednesday amid the prolonged heatwave.
Some homes were without power for more than three hours in triple-digit temperatures.
Power was out most of the afternoon in the Horn Rapids area and then 1,200 residents in central Richland lost power late in the evening.
Both outages were caused by faulty cables, according to Richland city officials. The extreme heat can impact equipment, it said.
“Please take extra precautions to keep your home from heating up by closing window shades and blinds and limit opening the refrigerator and/or freezer,” city staff wrote in a 1:30 p.m. post to Facebook after the outage Horn Rapids outage began.
One person posted online that “people are just blowing through” the traffic light that was out at Highway 240 and Kingsgate Way.
By 4 p.m. more than half of customers had power restored and the city was reminding residents that the Richland Public Library was available for people to cool down. Some residents posted online that they planned to head there.
Not long after that line crews had restored power to homes in the Horn Rapids area and were working to get commercial customers back online.
The city announced that power had been fully restored at 4:42 p.m. No estimate on the number of customers affected was immediately available.
At 8:25 p.m. power was lost in the area of Swift Boulevard and Jadwin Avenue.
“Sending good vibes to the line crews working on restoring it. Y’all are heroes,” posted Scott Butner, of Richland, on the city’s Facebook page during the outage.
The city announced power was restored at 10 p.m., to the relief of residents.
“You folks rock!” Jeff Marzyck posted to the line crew on Facebook.
He also said he was glad that the line crew work in Richland has not been “contracted out to some third party that could have had other jurisdictions, priorities and/or customers in front of us during a heat wave.”
“This is why we should keep our utility services in house,” he reminded the Richland City Council.
Temperatures in the Tri-Cities reached 108 degrees on Wednesday.
The Tri-Cities and other Eastern Washington communities are under an excessive heat warning through Saturday, July 30.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for Tri-Cities highs of 109 Thursday, 108 Friday and Saturday, and 107 Sunday, before temperatures drop into the 90s on Monday.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 4:30 PM.
