Outages hit roughly 25,000 Idaho Power customers Wednesday. Here’s a breakdown

Chef and owner Barbie Larrinaga arrived at her Basquenese Food Truck on Thursday morning to find that everything in her freezer had thawed. Her power had gone out at home, but she’d thought her food truck was safe in Garden City.

“I was like, ‘OK, if I’m suffering at home, that’s totally fine as long as my inventory is good,’” Larrinaga told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

Instead, she had to throw out about $1,500 in food. Her Basque-Vietnamese fusion truck has become a popular lunch spot and will soon open a new location in the downtown Warehouse Food Hall.

“Aside from the financial hit that we took as an extremely small business, I am sorry primarily for our patrons,” Larrinaga said. “We took a hit on money, but it’s about serving the public and me sitting here not being able to crank out food right now. It does take a toll on me because that’s what I do.”

Larringa was one of about 25,000 Idaho Power customers who lost power Wednesday, the result of high-wind storms that descended on the Treasure Valley and wiped out electricity or caused the utility to take preventive action.

Idaho Power spokesperson Sven Berg said 9,103 customers had their power cut through a new program, called the public safety power shutoff plan, that calls for preemptive power shutoffs to prevent possible wildfires.

“It is always our goal to reliably provide power to people, but safety is going to trump that,” Berg said in a phone interview. “... It only takes a gust or two to knock over a tree into a line.”

Idaho Power was concerned that Wednesday’s winds could cause power lines to hit the ground and possibly ignite fires. Ada County’s winds reached 59 miles per hour, which was recorded on a Military Reserve trail, according to the National Weather Service.

Idaho Power sent warnings about potential power shutoffs to about 55,000 people in 50 zones. Only two zones, however, ended up experiencing a public safety shutoff, Berg said. Most of those customers were in or near the Foothills, including the North End, the East End, the Highlands and Hidden Springs.

The remaining outages experienced by 16,000 or so customers were a result of storm damage, which could be anything from debris blowing into a line to a utility pole getting knocked over, Berg said.

Even those in areas with underground power lines can be affected since most of those eventually connect to an overhead line farther away, according to Berg.

Idaho Power worked overnight to return electricity

Harris Ranch resident Jim Verdolini said he did his best to prepare for power issues after experiencing a four-hour outage Monday evening. He broke out his solar generator and battery-charged fans, and made sure to charge everything in his house.

Though he knew outages could happen, he didn’t know when. As it turned out, the outage there hit halfway through cooking some lamb chops.

“I was absolutely furious because we were just starting our dinner,” Verdolini said by phone. “We had food about half-cooked when it got dark. That is not exactly the way to be doing things. It should be a little bit more precise.

“And secondly, I think they should have targeted areas that have got an actual, honest to God, good chance of a tree falling on a power line.”

Idaho Power began working to return power after 9 p.m. Sometimes that can be done from afar, but often the utility workers often have to go to sites to do it manually.

“Sometimes we can do that with a helicopter or even a drone, but a lot of times we have to do it on foot or on an ATV,” Berg said. “It just kind of varies across the board, depending on terrain, flight rules, that kind of thing.”

The first zone affected by the public safety shutoff was reenergized by 11 p.m. and the second by 3:40 a.m., Idaho Power said. Fewer than 1,000 customers were still without power at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Despite concerns about whether cutting off electricity during high temperatures would cause medical issues, it seemed to have little impact.

St. Luke’s Health System said its emergency rooms in Boise, Meridian and Nampa saw no patient increase during the power outages. Ada County Paramedics reported only two heat-related emergency calls Wednesday, fewer than the three calls they received Monday and three on Tuesday.

The Boise Fire Department did not return the Statesman’s request for information about any fire issues.