SPOKANE, Wash. — Thousands of people lost power after a dust storm rolled through the Inland Northwest Wednesday night.
One neighbor in North Spokane said Wednesday night's outage is unlike others she's seen before.
It was a typical line of traffic on Wellesley Avenue, except with cars having to navigate the intersection of North Alberta Street without electricity.
Neighbors had to deal with what the weather brought Wednesday night.
"[I'm] glad I cooked dinner early since I lost power," Janet Morales said.
Morales said that's what happened at around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, as well as for thousands of affected Avista customers.
With high winds in the forecast, this time of year, Morales said she's not used to seeing as long of an outage.
"Usually, we don't lose power," Morales said. "Maybe for an hour, hour and a half maybe. But now, it's been out for hours."
Power has been out for hours not only for her, but for many homes like hers on Hoffman Avenue.
"This time, it's like, literally four blocks away, so, and there's been fires, and, you know, the blinds are down and they're live," Morales said.
As Morales and her family wait to see her power come back on, they're all lighting candles, taking stock of their batteries for flashlights. She hopes the power comes back on sooner rather than later.