YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash.– Several communities in Yakima County experienced power outages today.

Outages occurred near towns including Moxee, Zillah, Granger, Sunnyside and Toppenish.

It all started at 6:08 a.m. when a reported power outage affected more than 1,600 customers. Pacific Power tells us the cause of the outage was primarily due to light rain and wind causing a fire on a nearby utility pole. All customers in this incident had power restored around 11:30 a.m.

Pacific Power’s map showed other outages nearby were caused by the same thing. They tell us when a line is affected, circuit breakers open and impact other outages. They say it takes time for crews to do the work and fix it.

As you may have also seen in our poll today, winter is coming soon and 81 percent of votes indicate that people are concerned about power outages this winter.

“As we all head into the winter season, it’s always encouraging to have our emergency shutoff kits ready,” said Pampi Chowdhury, spokesperson for Pacific Power. “If we’re in the middle of a weather situation and we get hit or there’s a power outage, we have everything we need to be able to manage for several hours.”

Items in the kits should include extra batteries, non-perishable foods, water bottles and more.