Power went out for roughly 5,964 customers across Kearns, Taylorsville, West Jordan and surrounding parts of Salt Lake County Wednesday evening, leaving homes and businesses in the dark as crews scrambled to figure out what happened. The cause remained under investigation.
According to ABC4 Utah, Rocky Mountain Power reported the outage was impacting customers in those communities, and the cause was still under investigation Wednesday evening. By 9:15 p.m., the outage was mostly resolved, with only 25 Rocky Mountain Power customers statewide still without power.
No Word Yet on What Triggered the Blackout
By 9:15 p.m., the outage was mostly resolved, with only 25 Rocky Mountain Power customers statewide still without power.
It's not the first time this fall that a large swath of Salt Lake County has gone dark. The station's report notes that on October 26, a separate outage left 6,038 customers without power in Midvale, Salt Lake City and Sandy, an incident Rocky Mountain Power attributed to the loss of a substation, according to KUTV. In that case, crews managed to fix the problem by 10:40 a.m., well ahead of an earlier estimate that restoration could take as long as six hours.
Red Cross Safety Tips for an Extended Outage
As the outage was being resolved Wednesday evening, ABC4 passed along a handful of American Red Cross recommendations for households riding out the dark hours. Among them: keep food cold and, when in doubt, throw it out, since spoiled items can pose a health risk once refrigeration lapses for too long.
The Red Cross also recommends unplugging appliances and electronics to prevent power overloads and fire hazards once service returns, and urges caution around carbon monoxide poisoning for anyone relying on gas appliances during the outage. The organization further suggests monitoring local alerts for updates and contacting a support network to let them know what's going on.
Whether to hunker down or head elsewhere depends on individual circumstances, the Red Cross notes, since staying home may not be viable for those with medical devices or a need for heating or cooling. By 9:15 p.m., the outage was mostly resolved, with only 25 Rocky Mountain Power customers statewide still without power.
