Windstorm knocks out power in Beaver

A windstorm that rolled through Beaver County Tuesday evening took down 15 power transmission poles, cutting off electricity to Beaver City, Milford and Minersville.

Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said crews were already on the scene, and more personnel were being called in from surrounding areas to help with repairs. Eskelsen said options were still being evaluated, but as of late Tuesday night, a near-term partial restoration seemed unlikely.

"We'll probably be at it overnight and all day tomorrow," Eskelsen said.

A Beaver County sheriff dispatcher said a "black cloud" rolled in from the north Tuesday evening with high winds blowing sand and dirt, but it did not deposit any rain. Shortly after the the weather arrived at about 7:30 p.m., the area lost power.

Eskelsen said losing 15 power poles in a single weather event was "very unusual," and he was still awaiting field reports to determine the cause of the widespread damage.

About 2,300 customers were affected by the outage.

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