Extreme Storm Causes Power Outages for 4,534 MEC Members

BULLHEAD CITY, AZ – Storms with heavy rain, high wind, and lightning strikes caused seven separate power outages throughout Mohave Electric Cooperative’s (MEC) eastern & western service territory from Valle Vista, Peach Springs, to Hualapai, and areas of Mohave Valley, Fort Mohave, and Bullhead City. Crews worked throughout the night and into the next day to restore power as quickly as possible to all members. Outages caused by these extreme storms are unfortunately unavoidable. The largest outage affected 2,990 members in Valle Vista, Hackberry, Valentine, Hualapai, and Peach Springs of the eastern service area, occurring early Thursday afternoon for approximately 21 hours. Crews replaced five broken 69kV sub-transmission poles and 3/4 mile of neutral line to energize the substation transformer to close circuit breakers. Crews also used circuit switching equipment to restore power while the line crew worked on the repairs. Switching is rerouting power to restore electricity to members as soon as possible. 662 members were restored between 4:54 p.m. and 11:25 p.m. on Thursday night, while the majority of members were restored on Friday by 12:54 p.m.

In the western service area 1,544 MEC members were affected by storm outages, for a majority of members in the Fort Mohave area that were restored by 3:04 a.m. An isolated outage of 85 members experienced from 11:47 p.m. to 3:05 a.m., 4 different blown fuses due to the extreme storm in Bullhead City, Willow Valley, and Fort Mohave service area. Crews replaced the fuses restoring power beginning at 4:54 a.m. and finishing by 6:08 a.m.

Outage restoration is important to Mohave Electric Cooperative and every effort is made to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Please remember, there are many ways to report an outage. You can call our toll-free line at (844) 632-2667, text “outage” to 55050 from a number linked to your MEC account or use our SmartHub® application on your mobile device to report the outage. With proper notification setup through SmartHub®, updates will come to you. You can also track outages on our website.