Pair of power outages hit 1,000s of Bend-area Pacific Power customers, Central Electric Co-Op members

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Thousands of Bend-area residents dealt with two unrelated power outages hours apart on Monday, the first occurring in southern areas of the city and later on the north side of town.

Late Monday afternoon, Central Electric Cooperative reported that failed equipment knocked out power to about 1,500 members in northeast Bend and the Deschutes Junction area.

Officials estimated that power would be restored by about 6:30 p.m. An affected member said the power went out around 3:20 p.m.

Earlier Monday, more than 2,600 Pacific Power customers in southern Bend had their power go out for an hour or more, starting around 9:20 a.m.

Utility spokesman Simon Gutierrez said initial reports indicated "an excavator knocked a tree into our lines."

A circuit breaker was restored, putting most of those affected back in service, but 400 customers had to await crews' completion of line repairs to get their power back by early afternoon.