Arizona utility providers say monsoon season has been most destructive in decades

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- This monsoon has been a busy one. Crews constantly have to replace power polls that have gone down across the Valley following a storm.

Salt River Project officials told Arizona’s Family that this monsoon season had the most significant impact on their system in the past 30 years. After a storm like last Friday, you may have seen several wooden power polls get knocked down, prompting crews worked to replace them with steel polls. SRP has a storage yard full of power polls and other supplies ready to go to replace ones that go down.

In July, SRP said they had more than 200 poles go down in a single storm event. As a result, crews have been on standby during the season, ready to replace polls and restore power. Utility providers also have a way they can also re-route power to areas in need if needed.

“Even if we have polls that go down in a certain area we are able to re-route that power pretty quickly so this past weekend we had 2,300 customers that were without power at the height of the storm Friday afternoon but within a few hours everybody was back in power pretty much,” said Patty Garcia-Likens, an SRP spokesperson.

SRP also manages the water from the Salt River. They said our area typically gets its water up north during winter, so any rain any other time of the year helps.

“Even though we rely on those winter months for majority of our water supply we always welcome whatever the summer monsoons bring and another thing with our active monsoon season is people tend to water less,” said Garcia-Likens.

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