Avista Estimates 15000 Customers Have had Natural Gas Service Restored so far - bigcountrynewsconnection.com

Avista Estimates 15,000 Customers Have had Natural Gas Service Restored so far | Idaho | bigcountrynewsconnection.com

LEWISTON - Avista said late Sunday afternoon that natural gas service has been restored to an estimated 15,000 customers who experienced outages stemming from the damage that occurred on the Williams Pipeline between Pullman and Colfax last week. The incident forced Avista to cut natural gas service to over 36,000 customers in Lewiston, Clarkston, Asotin, Pullman, Moscow, Colton, Uniontown, Genesee, Palouse, Albion, Troy, Deary and Bovill areas.

The company says that each of its teams are currently averaging more than 5 relights an hour, and the number of total relights per hour throughout the region now is regularly reaching peaks around 900 relights per hour.

The company says they are still expecting to have natural gas services fully restored by the end of day on Tuesday. For any customers who could not be present for the initial relight process, Avista will continue to be available throughout the week. Personnel are continuing to work into to relight natural gas appliances between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Avista has received reports of scams from customers throughout the affected service territory. The latest example involves a GoFundMe account soliciting funds allegedly aimed to “establish a fund to help [Avista] workers facing unexpected financial challenges.” This is not an Avista authorized account or effort.

Unfortunately, in emergency situations like this incident, scammers will typically move quickly, looking to trick as many people as possible into complying with their demands or falling victim to their fraudulent programs, according to Avista.

The company says customers should be on alert and continue to report suspicious requests or interactions with anyone who may be impersonating the company. Additionally, customers should not grant a suspicious person or suspected scammer access to their homes.

Customers will receive notification within 24 hours of their planned relight that crews are headed to their zone. The relight process involves a service person knocking on a door and entering the property when a resident or business owner is present. An adult will need to be present to let the service person inside. Customers are asked not to leave doors to homes unlocked. All field personnel conducting relights will have identification.

Once relit, Avista will check the appliances in the residence. If the resident is not home, Avista will leave a card on the door upon the last attempt for the day, inviting the customer to call Avista so someone can come back to relight.