BOULDER, Colo. — The City of Boulder opened a drop-off site for spoiled food after thousands of residents were without power after the weekend windstorm and Xcel Energy pre-emptively shut off power to thousands of customers.
Boulder County residents can drop off spoiled food at Western Disposal’s transfer site at 2051 63rd St. in Boulder.
The city said those who lost power can bring spoiled food in non-glass containers for composting.
If the food is in glass containers, residents are asked to empty the food into plastic bags or plastic containers and then recycle the glass in their curbside bin.
Those who are unable to utilize the Western Disposal dumpsters are asked to use their regular garbage bin to dispose of spoiled food and their regular recycling bin to dispose empty, clean recyclable containers.
Xcel Energy said on Monday morning that 49,000 customers were still without power and that they expected 80% to 90% of those outages to be resolved by Monday night.
Xcel Energy was working to restore power after more than 150,000 customers experienced outages as strong winds moved through Colorado this weekend. About 55,000 of those customers had their power preemptively shut off, and more than 100,000 customers lost power at some point due to the wind.
Powerlines were de-energized due to winds causing an increased risk of wildfire in Boulder, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Douglas and Broomfield counties, as well as the west Denver metro area along the foothills.
"The weather event, including high wind and red flag warnings, ended at noon yesterday, making it safe for our crews to assess damage, inspect powerlines and re-energize impacted customers," Xcel Energy said in a statement. "As windspeeds decreased, we were able to deploy other inspection tools like helicopters and drones to further speed the restoration process. This includes both those customers impacted by the public safety power shutoff (PSPS) and the severe weather."
Nearly 60% of areas that experienced outages had power back on Sunday, Xcel Energy said.
"With the significant number outages from this weather event, this restoration process will extend into today and possibly longer for some customers," Xcel Energy said Monday morning. "Crews were conducting line inspections and making repairs yesterday and overnight, and there has been some acceleration in the rate of restoration."
Xcel Energy regional vice president Hollie Velasquez Horvath said Sunday afternoon they’ve learned several lessons this weekend and are working on ways to better communicate with customers, but she stands by the decision they made to shut off power before the strong winds arrived.
“I believe we made absolutely the right decision,” Horvath said. “We have damage on our electric lines that is due to wind. If those lines were energized, that was a risk of a wildfire.”
Xcel Energy said crews needed to inspect the more than 600 miles of powerlines that were preemptively de-energized before power could be restored.
The shutoffs began at around 3 p.m. Saturday and continued into Sunday. Xcel released a map Saturday night of the approximate areas where the shutoffs were happening.
This is the first time Xcel has proactively shut off power before a storm in Colorado. Xcel operates in eight states, and has tried this method in other states. Xcel said de-energizing has become an increasingly common tool in helping reduce the risk of wildfires.
South Metro Fire Rescue tips for residents
- People who are dependent on bottled oxygen should have enough spare bottles to get through Sunday, or should consider staying with family, friends or at a hotel outside planned outage areas.
- Smoke alarms may start chirping intermittently because the backup batteries are low and should be replaced.
- Do not use a gas stove to heat a home, do not use outdoor stoves indoors and keep generators outside in a well-ventilated area away from windows.
Reporting an Xcel Energy outage
Customers can report outages to Xcel Energy a few different ways:
- The My Xcel Energy mobile app, available in the Apple App Store and through Google Play.
- Online at xcelenergy.com/out
- Via text by texting OUT to 98936 to report an outage, or text STAT to the same number to check the status of a power outage
- By calling 1-800-895-1999 and following the prompts—the automated phone reporting system lets customers report outages in less than 60 seconds. Once the cause of the problem is identified, the system or an Xcel Energy representative will provide customers with an estimated restoration time when available.
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