The monsoon's first storm Saturday night caused widespread power outages across the Tucson area, affecting more than 20,000 customers, Tucson Electric Power officials said.
TEP crews worked overnight and were still repairing downed power lines Sunday afternoon, Joseph Barrios, TEP spokesman, said.
The TEP outage map showed about 147 customers throughout northern, eastern and central Tucson areas were still without power around 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
"There’s been quite a bit of work for us this morning which is fine,” Barrios said. "We understand it's hot today and we're just working to get everyone's power back in service as quickly as we can."
TEP set up two ice distribution centers Sunday in Walmart parking lots in the Foothills Mall and at the East Speedway and North Kolb Road locations.
Barrios on Saturday night said reports were coming in from all areas of Tucson around 10:30 p.m.
"There are some instances where a storm will come through town and it'll do a lot of damage in a relatively small area because of a micro-burst," he said. "But what we saw last night was significant damage and outages throughout town. It was really widespread."
More than 500 customers' power was restored Sunday morning, Barrios said. He said many people report downed power lines the morning after a storm, once it's light out and they're able to better see the damage.
Barrios said when people see downed power lines they should stay away from them and call 911.
Starting Wednesday, the forecast predicts a 20% chance of thunderstorms around the Tucson metro area every day through Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.
