Utilities prepared for more outages as monsoon storms continue to roll through Valley

PHOENIX — The two public utilities in the Valley are gearing up for potentially more outages with monsoon storms in the forecast through the weekend.

Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project saw a combined 23,000 outages due to Thursday night storms.

APS, the largest utility in the state, was hit with about 18,000 of those outages during the peak of storms, spokeswoman Lily Quezada told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday.

West Valley customers, namely in Peoria, were the hardest hit and some service isn’t expected to return until Friday evening, Quezada added.

“A lot of that work is us reinstalling poles and replacing a lot of the equipment that is lost,” Quezada said.

About 50 power poles in Peoria were lost as a result of the storm, according to Quezada.

A rain gauge near Peoria and 83rd avenues captured .55 inches since Thursday night. Wind gusts surpassed 60 mph in some areas in the West Valley.

APS had about 3,500 customers without power at about 11:15 a.m. SRP had around 100 without power.

SRP spokeswoman Patty Garcia-Likens said the utility wasn’t hit too hard Thursday but is prepared for an onslaught of storms.

“We work very closely with the National Weather Service and we also have meteorologists on staff, so they’re able to alert us to these weather patterns,” Garcia-Likens said.

Forecasters with the NWS said parts of the Valley could get up to three inches of rain by the end of the weekend.

Rain chances are at 50% or greater through Sunday night and a flood watch is in effect through Saturday.

The utilities advise people to put together emergency kits with items such as nonperishables, portable chargers, flashlights and batteries to combat potential power outages.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino contributed to this report.

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