Severe winter storms battering the U.S. West Coast and Northwest have left hundreds of thousands of residents without power as high winds continue to wreak havoc on electrical infrastructure.

Utility data show that more than half a million customers remain without electricity across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana following powerful wind gusts of up to eighty-five miles per hour and persistent rainfall, compounding damage from earlier floods and downed trees.

Governors and emergency officials have reported that fallen power lines and infrastructure damage have made power restoration difficult and slow across the hardest-hit regions.

In Washington state, rivers swollen by an atmospheric river and strong winds have inundated communities, prompting evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents and complicating efforts to restore power in southern and eastern parts of the state.

Nearly four hundred thousand residents in Washington and nearly two hundred thousand in Oregon continue to face outages, with utility crews working under hazardous conditions to reinstate service.

Montana has also reported extensive outages, particularly in rural areas where crews are challenged by falling trees and unstable conditions.

Officials have warned that continued gusty winds and incoming storm systems could delay full recovery and extend outages into the holiday period.

The severe weather system responsible for the widespread power losses is part of a large low-pressure pattern sweeping eastward from the Pacific Northwest, bringing a combination of damaging winds, heavy rain and mountain snowfall across much of the northern United States.

National Weather Service advisories remain in effect for wind, flood and blizzard conditions as the storm’s impact continues.