Hood River, White Salmon have gas service again after chilly holiday week

By Ryan Haas (OPB)
Dec. 27, 2020 5:14 p.m.

NW Natural said Sunday it has finally restored natural gas service to roughly 5,500 customers in the Hood River and White Salmon areas, who were without gas over the holiday week.

The energy provider called it “the largest outage the company has experienced in 65 years.”

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Gas in the area had to be turned off Dec. 20 after a vehicle crashed into a Williams NW Pipeline Co. district regulator station in Bingen, Washington. The vehicular crash meant some customers had to turn to portable heaters over the holiday.

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NW Natural said it gave away around 2,200 portable heaters, 1,000 blankets and provided hotel accommodations for some customers who were without heat for several days.

Because of the accident, NW Natural said it had to completely turn off natural gas to the area, and then manually restart service for each customer. At times, overnight temperatures in the area reached below freezing.

Technicians from several states with NW Natural, Avista, Cascade/Intermountain and Puget Sound Energy worked together through a mutual aid agreement to restore gas service over the holiday.



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