The company expresses gratitude to customers following largest gas outage in company’s history

Spokane, Wash. Nov. 14, 2023, 4:30 p.m.:  After a week of dedicated work, Avista announced natural gas services have been restored to about 32,000 customers in all service zones in the Palouse and Lewiston/Clarkston Valley. At this time, there are less than 250 customers remaining for an initial visit, which is expected to be completed by this evening. Approximately 3,500 relights remain for customers who were not available during initial attempts to relight.

Avista urges residents and businesses who were not home during initial attempts for relight to call 1-800-227-9187 at their earliest convenience to have someone come back to relight. Elevated staffing levels will continue beyond tomorrow to complete the remaining relights.

Heather Rosentrater, Avista President and Chief Operating Officer, stated, “We are extremely grateful to our customers for their patience and support throughout the past week. This was a difficult time for residents and business owners in the Palouse and L/C Valley. We want the entire community to know that the kindness our service teams experienced was witnessed and felt.”

Rosentrater added, “We are extremely proud of our employees, mutual aid partners and local HVAC contractors for accomplishing this extraordinary effort. We will forever be grateful. It took thousands of work-hours to restore services.”

About Avista Utilities
Avista Utilities is involved in the production, transmission and distribution of energy. We provide energy services and electricity to 408,000 customers and natural gas to 375,000 customers in a service area that covers 30,000 square miles in eastern Washington, northern Idaho and parts of southern and eastern Oregon, with a population of 1.7 million.  Avista Utilities is an operating division of Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA). For more information, please visit www.myavista.com.