The weather on Thursday may have been a mixture of sun and rain showers, but inside the EWEB emergency command center, a mock snow and ice storm had caused widespread damage, leaving more than 7,000 customers without service.
For the fifth year running, EWEB held a poster contest for area fifth graders in honor of Public Power Week. EWEB Commissioners stopped by classrooms around Eugene to present winning artists with awards.
As of 8 a.m. Saturday morning, there are just under 2,000 customers who remain without power. This includes a little over 200 in the Eugene area, and about 1,700 in the Mckenzie River Valley. Most of the remaining Eugene-area outages are single homes, which can be extremely labor intensive, particulalry those with accessibility issues, such as backyard service lines with no access for bucket trucks. We will continue to work until every customer is restored.
EWEB and contract crews made substantial progress restoring power to customers Friday, turning the lights back on for more than 1,000 customers.
We expect to restore about 1,000 customers in the Eugene area today. Please note that work conditions are dynamic and subject to change based on equipment damage, tree hazards and changing weather conditions.