Heavy snow brings down trees, power lines across the Wasatch Front

FARMINGTON, Utah — This latest round of heavy and wet snow is keeping power crews busy. Line crews worked on restoration efforts up and down the Wasatch Front Monday.

“When I came out, noticed that the power lines, the snow was shaking and dropping from them,” said Paul Zaluski, a Farmington resident.

The neighborhood, freshly blanketed with snow, was disturbed by a loud pop and sparks Monday morning.

“A loud boom and noise, yellow and white lights,” Zaluski recalled.

Heavy snow brought down a transmission line on 500 South.

“If you see downed lines, treat them as if they were live,” said Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson Tiffany Erickson.

Crews working on a downed power line in Farmington. Wet, heavy snow is causing issues across the Wasatch Front @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/nq0qBeH9Fv

— Shelby Lofton (@newswithShelby) April 3, 2023

That’s what Paul Zaluski did.

“I rushed back inside and called 911,” Zaluski said.

Crews tackled the power pole for hours.

“Everybody else is doing all the work. We’re just watching,” Zaluski said.

“We just got really heavy, wet snow, and what that does is it weighs down not only power lines, but also tree branches. You get trees breaking into power lines,” Erickson said.

Erickson said this storm didn’t impact as many customers as previous storms.

“From about 4 o’clock this morning, we’ve seen about 3,600 customers impacted.”

She said other storms have knocked out power for more than 10,000 to 15,000 customers.

Snow or shine, up and down, linemen will keep at it until the snow moves out.

“We have crews that have been on standby since yesterday that have been watching this storm and watching it progress,” Erickson said.

And a reminder, you can call or text Rocky Mountain Power to report an outage in your area.