Overnight monsoon storms knock out power to over 71,000 in Valley
Jul 18, 2022, 5:56 AM | Updated: 2:51 pm
PHOENIX – Overnight monsoon storms knocked out power and left tens of thousands in the dark across metro Phoenix.
Rain and wind that began Sunday night pummeled parts of the Valley, toppling transmission towers and felling lines east and west. Public utilities Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service reported nearly 72,000 customers combined had no power.
SRP said 39,488 were without power at the height of the outage, while APS, the state’s largest public utility, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday about 32,000 customers were impacted when more than a dozen transmission towers went down.
About 10,000 SRP customers were without power before sunrise Monday, according to an outage map.
Crews were repairing or replacing more than 100 utility poles and 15 power lines, the company said.
Last night’s monsoon storm downed a total of 106 distribution poles and 15 69 kV lines. If you are experiencing an extended outage, we are reimbursing customers for the cost of ice and encourage you to locate your nearest cooling center. https://t.co/YxtIGEtVMt
— Salt River Project (@SRPconnect) July 18, 2022
APS showed 325 customers on its outage map were without electricity around 1 p.m. That number was at 4,553 around 5:30 a.m.
Both power companies said customers who needed to buy ice could be reimbursed.
APS said it would refund customers who bought ice during outages of 10 hours or more for up to 20 pounds of dry ice or 40 pounds of regular ice.
SRP said customers whose power was out five hours or more may be reimbursed for up to $10 spent on ice.
Winds reached 65 mph around the suburbs east and west of downtown Phoenix, and some areas for anywhere from a half-inch to an inch of rain, the National Weather Service reported.
“Central Mesa through the West Valley, maybe clipping downtown Phoenix, [got] anywhere from half an inch to upwards of maybe even in a few spots, just over an inch in Mesa,” Chris Kuhlman of the weather service’s Phoenix bureau, said.
“There’s less than a 10% chance [of rain] through the afternoon and evening.”
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.
