CASPER, Wyo. –– Nearly 55,000 customers are without power on Thursday in Wyoming in a widespread outage, with more than 26,000 customers affected in the Casper area.
Other areas of the state are reporting outages as well, including Douglas, Glendo, Riverton, Buffalo and Gillette.
Large outages in South Dakota, Montana and Utah have also been reported, though it’s unclear if any of them are related at this time.
According to the Rocky Mountain Power map, the outage is affecting Casper and surrounding areas including Mills, Evansville and Bar Nunn. The power went out at around 12:45 p.m.
Oil City News has reached out to Rocky Mountain Power for more information.
A social media posted on Facebook by Rocky Mountain Power said the estimated restoration time could be as late as 9:45 p.m. However, as of 1:15 p.m. some customers have reported power returning in parts of Casper. A resident in Evansville told Oil City News that power there has flickered on and off. By 1:30 p.m., some downtown Casper businesses were reporting restored power.
The Natrona County Library’s downtown Casper branch said in a social media post that it will close for the remainder of the day due to the outage.
The Natrona County School District posted on social media that schools are currently operating for the school day, but will provide more information if things change.
Shortly after the outage was reported, firefighters responded to alarms at the Casper Business Center. Responders on scene said alarms were triggered by smoke caused by generators kicking on during the outage.
This story will be updated.
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