Xcel Energy anticipates that most of the more than 12,000 customers in Boulder County will have their power restored by 10 p.m. Saturday night.<\/p>\n
If that holds true, it would be light at the end of the tunnel for residents who have experienced intermittent power outages for four days. If the damage was severe enough, power may not be restored to some in until Sunday, Xcel said Saturday in a news release.<\/p>\n
As of 4:18 p.m. Saturday, Xcel\u2019s energy outage map listed 12,757 customers in Boulder being impacted by power outages. That number was more than 15,000 for much of Saturday and was declining steadily throughout the day.<\/p>\n
The latest round of Public Safety Power Shutoffs stemmed from Friday\u2019s strong winds<\/a>, which the National Weather Service deemed a \u201cParticularly Dangerous Situation.\u201d<\/a> The strong winds, dry conditions and unseasonably warm weather brought worries of increased wildfire risk. The weather service pulled that designation and a red-flag warning early Saturday as winds subsided.<\/p>\n Wind gusts peaked beyond 100 mph on Friday as the city of Boulder urged people to stay off the roads. The damage was widespread in the county, from signs and power lines being knocked down to roofs being damaged.<\/p>\n Xcel crews were working to restore power Saturday, said city of Boulder spokesperson Sarah Huntley. Crews were prioritizing parts of the grid that served \u201cmedically compromised individuals,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Huntley added that crews are assessing \u201csignificant damage\u201d in Nederland and unincorporated Boulder County.<\/p>\n Tim and Carrie Wise have operated Wise Buys Antiques along Second Avenue in Niwot for 39 years. The power for their home and store went out about 6 a.m. Friday. The timing stung for the couple because the weekend before Christmas is big for small businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re usually closed Sunday and Monday, so we said we\u2019re going to be open (those days). As soon as the lights come on, we\u2019re open,\u201d Carrie said.<\/p>\n The Wises felt lucky to operate an antique store. They simply grabbed a couple of kerosene lamps they had for sale and used them to light their home from Friday into Saturday.<\/p>\n Power came on for them and neighboring buildings briefly about 10 a.m. Saturday and went out 31 minutes later. Their power was restored about midday Saturday.<\/p>\n Abby Bok\u2019s north Boulder home lost power Wednesday during the first round of strong winds. She, her husband and her two kids again received power on Thursday so they could prepare before Friday\u2019s shutoff. They were still without power as of Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n Bok and many others throughout the county understood or even outright supported Xcel\u2019s decision, but they were frustrated with what they perceived as a lack of quality of communication on outages and their status.<\/p>\n \u201cI would rather have a standing house and not have to experience a fire,\u201d Bok said.<\/p>\n Bok called Xcel\u2019s communications \u201cconfusing.\u201d She said she was told Friday that power would return by 10 p.m. Saturday, then was told it would be Friday at 6:45 p.m. before again being told 10 p.m. Saturday. Bok received Xcel\u2019s update text messages but said one of her neighbors hadn\u2019t received anything. Bok has sparse cellphone service in north Boulder, which made it difficult to open links in Xcel\u2019s texts.<\/p>\n What\u2019s stressing Bok out the most is lost work time before the holidays because of the outages.<\/p>\n \u201cI was expecting to have a couple of days to tie things up with work that I lost. So, I\u2019m gonna have to work more next week than I was hoping to with holidays,\u201d Bok said, later adding: \u201cI work remotely with people all over the country, so they don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on here. So trying to explain the confusion has been a little frustrating, that I don\u2019t know when I\u2019m gonna lose power or when I\u2019m gonna get it back, if I\u2019m also gonna have internet because the schools are out. So it\u2019s not like I can just go find a coffee shop to work at with the kids at home.\u201d<\/p>\n An Xcel representative was unavailable for an interview.<\/p>\n Regarding communication, Xcel said Saturday it \u201chas been communicating with customers throughout the week, including updating them this morning on restoration times. Customers were contacted via their preferred communication method they selected in My Account. They will continue to receive updates as the estimates are refined and restoration work progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xcel Energy anticipates that most of the more than 12,000 customers in Boulder County will have their power…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":461816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4437,4438,4439,5295,746,4440,1370,728,50,92252,159,67,132,68,204715],"class_list":{"0":"post-461815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-boulder","9":"tag-boulder-county","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-front-range","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-local-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-niwot","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-xcel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115756558146368939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}