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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Falling tree limbs were less of a factor in wind-related power outages Monday than they were during December's outages, Utah Power & Light said.
Winds gusted to more than 80 mph Monday, resulting in outages affecting about 31,000 customers in northern Utah.
"We saw a fair number of power lines blow into each other and some failures of power-pole insulators due to the light rain," Utah Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said. "There was some tree-related damage this time, but not a lot."
A snowstorm from Dec. 25 to Dec. 27, dumped up 60 inches of snow on northern Utah, with Salt Lake and Davis counties particularly hard hit, and knocked out knocked out power to 100,000 customers. Some were without power for as long as five days.
Critics blamed the outages in part to deficiencies in Utah Power's tree-trimming that they said went back more than a decade.
Utah Power promised to increase its tree trimming.
It said Tuesday that it has increased its tree-trimming budget from $7.4 million last year to $11.4 million for this year.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
