Thousands of southern Oregon homes without power

Update (01/05/17 10:30 a.m.) — Pacific Power has lowered the number of customers without power to an estimated 3,809.

Medford, Ore. — Around 12,000 Pacific Power customers in southern Oregon and northern California are without power.

Heavy snow continues to bring down power lines across the region, and crews are battling to restore power. Pacific Power said service may not be restored to some residences until Friday due to severe system damage.

“We have nearly 250 Pacific Power line crew, tree trimmers, support staff and contractors on the job, who have been working around the clock now, with rest shifts to keep everyone sharp and safe,” said Larry Young, Pacific Powers’ southwest operations director. “At this time, we ask that customers who lack power prepare for their electricity to be out until tomorrow evening. Some individual and more isolated customers may not see power return until Friday. This is due to the severity and widespread nature of the damage, and in some cases, extremely rugged terrain. We are deploying snow cats where necessary and may use helicopters to patrol lines or get crews to areas that are inaccessible. In addition, we have approximately 60 contract line crew members arriving this afternoon and evening as we continually focus on getting more customers restored.”

Pacific Power listed the following communities with significant outages as of 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday”

Grants Pass/Cave Jct./Selma/Merlin — 6,497
Medford/Jacksonville/Gold Hill/Eagle Point — 2,528
Yreka/ Mt Shasta — 1,870

A Red Cross warming shelter is open at the Cave Junction City Hall (222 West Lister Street).

You can get the latest information about outages at http://www.pacificpower.net/outage