La Plata Electric Association reported widespread outages Friday because of snowstorms across its service territory, according to an “outage alert” on the association’s Twitter feed and its website, lpea.coop.
“Crews have been dispatched and will be working to restore power to all members as quickly as they are safely able,” the tweet says.
The largest outages were around Pagosa Springs. Outages have also occurred in Durango, Bayfield and Hesperus as well as Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs.
LPEA announced Saturday morning that 800 customers were still without power, after crews worked through the night to restore power.
The original outage alert was issued at 11:49 a.m. Friday, when 2,122 customers were without power because of 109 separate outages, according to LPEA’s Twitter feed and its its website, lpea.coop. Specific areas of outages and their status can be seen on an interactive map at outage.lpea.coop.
The force of wet, heavy snow built up on lines, then fell off to partly cause the outage, she said. Snowy roads slowed crews as they traveled between outages for repairs.
“Crews are 100% deployed, and they will not stop until power has been restored,” said LPEA spokeswoman Hillary Knox.
According to an outage report on the LPEA website: “It takes longer to restore outages in snowy conditions. Water is a conductor, so crews must take extra safety precautions to keep themselves and the public safe. We want to thank you for your patience while our crews work to restore your power as quickly as is safely possible.”
LPEA said it didn’t have an estimated time for restoration because crews won’t know what the issues are until they arrive at each outage location. Restoration times vary widely depending on the cause.
“As a general rule of thumb, we start with the biggest outages and work our way down to individual homes,” LPEA said. “We also prioritize issues that pose a risk to public safety, such as downed lines and car-hit poles and equipment.”
For the latest updates about outage locations, visit http://outage.lpea.coop/.
For more outage resources, visit https://lpea.coop/outage-center.
