OTEC reports March 3 outage affecting 910 accounts in La Grande, Cove

Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative's outage reporting system showed a power outage impacting around 910 member accounts in Union County, concentrated in La Grande and the Cove/Union areas, after unofficial field reports that a vehicle may have struck a power pole near Gekeler Lane and Peach Road. The initial outage post said, "No estimated time of restoration is avalible at this time."

The outage occurred Tuesday, March 3, 2026, and sparked on-the-ground response from line crews. An update timestamped 1:50 p.m. quoted OTEC: "1:35 p.m. Power has been restored to all but 2 members of which will be back on in a few hours once restoration of the broken equipment is completed. Thank you for your patience." That update narrowed the immediate impact to two lingering accounts awaiting repair to damaged equipment.

Local field reports linked the interruption to a pole strike in the Gekeler Lane and Peach Road area, but OTEC's afternoon message describes the remaining problem only as "broken equipment" and did not confirm a collision or attribute the damage to a vehicle. No law enforcement or crash-report details were available in the outage material, and sources did not report any injuries or citations connected to the alleged pole strike.

The March 3 outage is smaller in scale than a major overnight event in December 2022 that affected the county. The Observer reported that a Dec. 18–19, 2022 outage left nearly 5,000 OTEC members without power at the peak and that Communications Manager Joseph Hathaway said crews worked through the night to restore service by about 2 a.m.; that earlier outage was blamed on a broken jumper on the main transmission line to the substation, with the cause under investigation at the time.

Questions remain about the official cause and final restoration timeline for the March 3 outage. Sources did not provide the exact start time logged by OTEC, the precise final restoration time for the two remaining accounts, or confirmation from the Union County Sheriff’s Office or La Grande Police Department about a vehicle-pole collision in the Gekeler Lane and Peach Road area. OTEC’s reported estimate indicated repairs to broken equipment would return power to the final two members within a few hours of the 1:35 p.m. update.

Union County residents affected in La Grande and the Cove/Union areas were advised by OTEC’s outage reporting to monitor updates for final restoration information; utility crews were dispatched to repair damaged equipment and complete reconnections once parts and safe working conditions were secured.