More than 3,700 Chelan PUD Customers Without Power

More than 3,700 Chelan PUD customers are with out power today.

More than 3,600 of the outages are on the south shore of Lake Wenatchee, with residents between Plain and Stevens Pass affected. The outage extends along U.S. 2 from Winton and Coles Corner to Stevens Pass

Chelan PUD Outage Map

There are also 43 customers without power in Stehekin.

The customers between Plain and Stevens Pass are expected to have power again by 1pm today, while those in Stehekin aren't expected to have power again until 5pm tomorrow.

PUD Spokesperson Rachel Hansen says repairs will take more time because of the location of the outages. "They’re in very remote areas, probably the most remote areas in Chelan County," said Hansen.

The outage affecting Lake Wenatchee is on transmission lines that require line workers to ride a snow cat into a remote area of U.S. Forest Service land.

Hansen says it's important to avoid what's called "Cold Load Pickup," when power is restored but quickly goes out again because the system is overloaded with demand. Customers without power are being urged to shut off all non-heating appliances during the outage to ensure Cold Load Pickup does not take place.

The outages were reported at about 1:20am today, and are blamed on severe weather conditions.