Hundreds lose power in Southwest Idaho after wind and dust storm hits Boise area

Hundreds around the Treasure Valley and Southwest Idaho went without power Wednesday after Tuesday’s wind and dust storm.

Idaho Power’s outage map showed several smaller reported outages affecting chunks of Ada and Canyon counties around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, along with an outage affecting over 100 people residing just north of Interstate 84 near the Boise Airport.

Some of the larger outages reported were farther away from the Boise area.

Over 270 residents of Homedale were without power Wednesday morning. Idaho Power’s outage map showed that 427 people near Cascade and 133 people around Idaho City and areas around Lucky Peak Lake were without power.

Hours later, power was restored in nearly all of Boise, while some outages were ongoing in Nampa and Caldwell as of 3 p.m. Wednesday. At that time, Idaho Power’s outage map showed the outages in Homedale and Cascade as still active.

Southwest Idaho saw wind speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour in some areas during a dust storm Tuesday evening. The winds were enough to prompt an emergency alert from the National Weather Service in Boise warning people in the area to be ready if visibility quickly dropped to zero.

“Be ready for sudden drop to zero visibility. Pull aside, stay alive!” the alert read.

Many took to social media to document the storm, as area residents posted photos of downed trees and videos of the dust that flowed into the valley.

Idaho Power tweeted Wednesday morning that crews worked through Tuesday night and into Wednesday to restore power to roughly 20,000 customers after the storm.