Audrianna Hart, who lives in Boulder and has a baby, had a hard time when the power went out over the weekend. She didn’t know about the outage until it happened, and she had to rush to save her frozen breast milk.
She was one of 55,000 people who lost power because Xcel Energy turned it off to keep everyone safe from wildfires. About 100,000 more people lost power because of the strong winds.
Xcel Energy is trying to fix things. They have over 500 workers out checking the power lines, and they hope to get most of the power back by Monday night.
But people are upset. Governor Jared Polis reminded everyone to be kind to the workers who are trying to help.
Dani Epper from Lakewood had no power for 34 hours! They had to throw away a lot of food and couldn’t do their usual stuff around the house.
Xcel says they tried to tell people about the outage on Friday, but some, like Audrianna Hart, didn’t find out until right before it happened.
When the power went out, it caused problems with traffic lights, and some people didn’t stop like they should have. There were even some car crashes.
People rushed to grocery stores to buy ice and food that didn’t need to be in the fridge. But some, like Katie Walden, couldn’t find anything because it was all gone.
While Xcel’s plan to prevent wildfires is important, many wish they had more notice so they could be ready.
Melissa Locy from Flatiron Coffee saw a lot of business because her store had power. But many schools, like the ones in the Boulder Valley School District, were still without power.
People are wondering why the outage took so long to fix. Dani Epper thinks it’s important to know why and hopes it won’t happen again.