SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands lost power during a spring snowstorm that swept through Utah and turned the roads to a slushy mess Friday.

Power outages

Nearly 19,000 customers in the Salt Lake Valley were without power as of 9 p.m. They should prepare for the possibility that power will be out throughout the night and into Saturday, Rocky Mountain Power tweeted.

"Due to changing restoration conditions and extensive storm damage to distribution lines an exact time of restoration for all customers is not available at this time," the power company said in a news release.

A majority of the outages are located in the Salt Lake Valley east of I-15, between Emigration Canyon and Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.

RMP called in additional crews from American Fork, Layton and Ogden Friday to help with recovery and are working "as quickly and as safely as possible" to restore service.

Some homeowners may notice that their service mast was pulled away from their house during the storm, causing the outage. The mast is the property of the owner and has to be repaired before RMP can safely turn the power back on, the company tweeted. RMP only works on company-owned equipment, and homeowners should contact a licensed electrician to make repairs if their service mast is damaged.

More than 900 separate area outages were reported by Friday afternoon with the majority of those involving 10 customers or less, RMP said.

Other outages can be reported at rockymountainpower.net/ut-map or by texting OUT to 759677. For the latest updates, customers can visit the website or text STAT to the same number.

Traffic

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Both directions of 3300 South were closed from 500 West to I-15 because of standing water in the area Friday morning, the KSL Traffic Center reported. The road from 300 West to 500 West reopened shortly after, and eastbound 3300 South reopened around 11 a.m.

Other roads throughout the Wasatch Front were slick, and several crashes were reported throughout the area. The road through Emigration Canyon near 3000 East was closed after a power line fell on a snow plow, setting it on fire, KSL TV reported. The driver escaped unharmed, but the plow was destroyed.

The fire was extinguished and the burned snow plow was removed around 9:10 a.m., KSL TV reporter Shara Park said. Emigration Canyon has since reopened.

Across the city, heavy snow has caused branches to crash down onto vehicles and into the roadway. Sugar House and the East Bench, in particular, saw a lot of falling branches Friday morning.

Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said the Salt Lake City Parks and Public Lands Urban Forestry team was working to clear the damage — focusing on dangerous situations and limbs in locations where the public needs to move about freely. If a branch or tree is blocking a roadway or path in your area, call 801-972-7818.

The Salt Lake International Airport received 3.92 inches of precipitation overnight, the National Weather Service tweeted.

Get the complete forecast here.

Contributing: Shara Park, KSL TV

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