Highway 33 from Newdale to Tetonia is reopened

NEWDALE, Idaho (KIFI) – (Update August 25 8:20 p.m.) From the Idaho Transportation Department Facebook: "SH-33 from Newdale to Tetonia is now OPEN! Huge THANK YOU to our fantastic maintenance crews from across eastern Idaho, and to Rocky Mountain Power for working tirelessly all weekend long on this massive effort"

(August 24 5:27 p.m.) Power is back and running for people in the Madison, Fremont, and Jefferson County areas.

Fremont County Emergency Management reports that approximately 80 power poles went down along that stretch of Highway 33 from Newdale eastward.

However, according to reports from the scene, the outage concerned some folks last night.

 Brogun Abegglen told Local News 8. "it was boring. there's no lights and then it's gone… just quiet."

 Thousands were affected by last night's power outage.

Friday night plans were canceled, businesses had to shut down early, and dinner plans were ruined.

Most people lost power around 5 p.m. on Friday, August 23 and many reported not getting power back until 9 a.m. the following morning.

Crew members were up all last night trying to fix powerlines that fell from gusting winds.

Though power is back there is still more work to be done.

Road closure continues on Highway 33 and people are being asked to avoid the area.

"If you people are out and about trying to check it out, be useful and stay out of the worker's way so we can get it all taken. care of and get back to our day-to-day life," said Trever Abegglen.

They are making exceptions for people who live on Highway 33 to pass through.

However, there is not an estimated time for when the road will reopen.