Xcel Energy reported that more than 1,500 customers in Boulder County were without power Thursday as high winds battered towns in the foothills and slowed repairs. Residents in the Gold Hill area have been reporting power outages since Monday.
Sydney Isenberg, a spokesperson for Xcel, said crews are working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. “However, the winds are creating hazardous conditions for our crews, delaying the restoration process,” she said.
Forecasters expected gusts of about 50 miles per hour in the mountains Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, outages were reported for about 800 customers in Nederland, 300 in Jamestown and 300 near Salina, with additional outages across the county, according to Xcel’s outage map.
The outages were unplanned, according to Xcel. In other wind events, the utility has preemptively cut power to certain lines to reduce wildfire risk from downed trees.
Power outages for residents in the county’s mountain communities mean some lose heat, running water and a means to communicate. For instance, the area around Gold Hill is fire prone and largely without cell service. When the power goes out in Gold Hill, landlines fail and many residents lose their only dependable way to call 911. Fire officials have said the telecommunications company Lumen has not maintained the backup batteries that keep its network running during an outage, adding to concerns for residents living in high wildfire-risk areas.
Power was mostly restored by Thursday evening, according to Xcel’s outage map.