PUEBLO WEST, CO – Dangerously strong winds swept across several of San Isabel’s service districts beginning Thursday, December 15, and continuing throughout Friday. All outages were finally restored by 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 17. Major outage areas included: Rye, Colorado City, San Isabel, Beulah, Wetmore, Tercio, Spanish Peaks, Cuchara, Stonewall, Trinidad, and Starkville. In total, over 3,000 Members were out of power at some point during the duration of this sizeable outage.
Outage reports first came in at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 15, with scattered power-loss in Walsenburg, Monument, Tercio and El Moro. By 11:00 p.m. there were 450 Members without power in Rye, Colorado City, Beulah, Monument, Apishapa, Spanish Peaks, Tercio, La Veta and El Moro. A transmission line was lost at approximately, 11:15 a.m. on Friday, December 16 which accounted for the widespread outage of about 2,500 Members. Line crews continued being dispatched throughout Friday and Saturday. Crews worked until midnight on Friday, restoring all but 50 meters. Crews were working in very hazardous conditions with a temperature below 0. On Saturday morning, crews continued working to ensure 100% of the service territory was back in power. The final meter was restored at 4:00 pm on Saturday. Scattered outages continued to be reported throughout the weekend. SIEA’s Chief Operating Officer, Darryl Stewart reflected, “High winds cause treacherous conditions for the workers and on top of that, the temperature continued to drop and it started snowing. It does not matter how good your gear is, it gets cold when you are working in these extreme conditions. The line crews always have a sense of urgency in restoring outages, but the cold makes it that even more important to get Members back in power. Even though winter outages do happen, our Members saw how long and how hard we will work for them. Electricity powers our lives and it doesn’t matter how uncomfortable it is for the line crews, they will get the job done.”
SIEA strives to always communicate up-to-date, transparent information to the Membership and public. Operations, dispatch, communications and upper management meet on an ongoing basis to continue improving crisis communication plans with an increased focus on Member preparedness information and a reiteration of the outage procedure. The best thing Members can do during an outage is call Outage Reporting 1-800-279-7432 to get their location reported and the wheels in motion for fast, safe restoration.
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