The workers at Spokane-based Avista Corp. and the region’s other power companies deserve praise for their efforts to restore power after the historic Nov. 17 windstorm that left more than 200,000 customers without electricity. 

On the early morning of Friday, Nov. 27, Avista restored power to the last of its customers affected by the storm, meaning some people went without power for nearly a full 10 days, including Thanksgiving. 

The 180,000 Avista customers who lost power, most of whom are in Spokane County, represent about half of the utility’s electricity customers. At West Plains-based electric cooperative Inland Power & Light Co., fewer customers lost power—about 31,000 in all—but that comprised a larger percentage of its customer base, roughly three-quarters of them. Kootenai Electric Cooperative, Vera Water & Power, and Modern Electric faced similar challenges. Longtime Inland Northwest residents understood the seriousness of the situation when early reports came in saying that the amount of damage surpassed that of Ice Storm 1996. 

It’s difficult to gauge the utilities’ performance based on the amount of time it took to fix all of the storm-related problems, primarily because they hadn’t experienced an outage of this magnitude previously. Though it’s difficult to evaluate based on speed of response, what can be quantified—and lauded—is the effort and investment put into restoring services. Avista brought in line crews from other states to work alongside its own. On Nov. 22, the company reported having 123 crews working around the clock on a rotating basis. The combined workforce totaled at least 650 people in the field. 

Anybody who drove around Spokane saw that the work wasn’t as simple as stringing a wire or flipping a switch. Power lines swayed under the weight of fallen trees or broke and became tangled in branches. The work proved to be intricate and dangerous. 

It wasn’t just the people on the front lines who deserve credit. At their home bases, utilities’ communications teams did an exemplary job of connecting with customers and media, responding via social media to individual questions and concerns. 

As Thanksgiving neared and temperatures dropped, it became clear that some customers wouldn’t have power in time for the holiday. To those 3,100 customers, Avista mailed $150 gift cards from Rosauers Supermarkets as an empathetic gesture. By the following morning, those customers had power. 

Coincidentally, Avista economist Grant Forsyth spoke at the 2016 Economic Forecast a week before the wind storm. He said he’s often asked whether natural disasters are good or bad for the economy. He said, authoritatively, that they are bad. Forsyth was speaking in the context of the devastating fires that ravaged much of the state last summer, but his statements ring true for the wind storm as well. 

While the power is back, it likely will take months for Inland Northwest residents and businesses to clear fallen trees and fix damaged structures. 

It might take even longer to calculate the full economic toll of the storm. For now, though, -we’re thankful to have power, and we’re especially grateful to those who restored it.