Toppled trees shut down power, ski lifts in northern AZ

Whitney M. Woodworth | The Republic | azcentral.com

High winds and toppled trees led to power outages in several cities in northern Arizona and halted ski-lift service at the Arizona Snowbowl on Sunday, officials said.

Fallen trees downed power lines in Payson, Flagstaff and Munds Park Saturday evening, leaving about 2,400 people without power, said Alan Bunnell, a spokesman for Arizona Public Service Co.

Crews were on the scene, and Bunnell said they hoped to restore power by 4 p.m.

The outage briefly shut down ski lifts at Arizona Snowbowl, but backup power got them up and running again by 11 a.m., Snowbowl spokesman Jason Stratton said.

Due to power outage caused by fallen trees, we are working to open the lifts on backup power. We hope to be open by noon. — Arizona Snowbowl (@AZSnowbowl) December 27, 2015

He said extended hours, which run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until Jan. 3, will still be in effect.

All lifts including Agassiz are now open until 4:30 pm! Lots of sunshine next week! See you on the slopes! pic.twitter.com/u594SQDech — Arizona Snowbowl (@AZSnowbowl) December 27, 2015

The resort also closed the Agassiz lift Saturday because of high winds. Stratton said the lift was reopened shortly after 1 p.m. on Sunday.