Over 14,000 without power in southern Utah

ST. GEORGE \u2014 Over 14,000 Rocky Mountain Power customers in the southwestern tip of Utah near St. George were without power Thursday evening.As of around 6 p.m. on Thursday, 14,480 customers were experiencing outages, according to Rocky Mountain Power.The outage started around 5:15 p.m., said David Cordero, St. George City public information officer. The issue is with PacificCorp and impacted all other providers in the area, he said.The outage is countywide barring a few small areas, Cordero said.While the cause of the power outage is under investigation, RMP stated: "Initial assessments indicate it is safe to begin restoring power." This was done in stages, according to RMP, to protect the electric system and return power to customers in a controlled and orderly manner.RMP said it could take up to a week to determine the cause of the outage.RMP customers can report outages or get information about outages by texting OUT to 759677 or by calling 1-888-221-7070.Dammeron Valley Water Works encouraged residents in the area to immediately conserve water because the power outage was affecting water infrastructure. The water works notice indicated that while water tanks are full, conservation is needed so there is enough water for essential needs and emergency fire suppression. Garna Mejia, KSL As of 9:40 p.m., power was returned to customers of Hurricane Power."Thank you for your assistance as we stabilized our service area," Hurricane Power said in a Facebook post.Any Hurricane Power customers who continue to experience outage issues are encouraged to call 435-668-5612 for assistance.Power was also restored at 7:30 p.m. to several critical services, according to Dixie Power. The company had access to 25% of its normal electric load on Thursday night. It did rolling blackouts to evenly disperse the electricity it had available."Areas receiving power will generally remain energized for approximately 60 minutes before service rotates to another area," Dixie Power stated.Based on our current capacity, customers should expect to receive power for approximately one hour every four hours."Dixie Power said these intervals were just estimates and may vary. The company said it expects to increase its available electricity "shortly."As of Thursday evening, it was 104 degrees in St. George, and expected to dip into the mid-to-high 90s by 9 p.m.This story will be updated. To be notified about updates, please click Follow This Stor