BOULDER, Colo. — Starting at 5 a.m. Friday, Xcel Energy said it would turn off power for about 69,000 customers as part of planned power outages to reduce wildfire risk amid strong winds. The first planned outage was Wednesday, impacting about 50,000 customers.
Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld counties are impacted in Fridays shutoffs.
Boulder County’s Office of Disaster Management encouraged people to stay home and off the roads Friday because of the dangerously high winds.
“We've preemptively closed, and we're just gonna play it by ear and see what happens,” Krista Beseda, the owner of Sanitas Family Dentistry, said when asked her plans for Friday. “As a business owner, it’s a little stressful right before the holidays.”
Another business owner close by echoed the same feelings.
“This is when we’re supposed to make some extra money,” Rachel Demartin, the owner of Pasta Press, said. “I'm gonna be stressing out from 5am that's, I mean, it's the uncertainty that makes you stress out, right? It's causing a lot of chaos in the community, I think, and it's bad for business.”
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the outages, Demartin is doing her best to stay open, hoping to give people an option to eat when they don’t have power.
“They need a place to eat, you know,” Demartin said. “You got to open for the community.”
Both Beseda and Demartin lost their power during the first planned outage on Wednesday.
“We hung around for a couple hours and waited to see what would happen. No power. So, we canceled everything,” Beseda said.
Her business ended up getting power later in the morning, but still remained closed.
Demartin described her experience Wednesday.
“About 3:30 [PM] and I got a note that or text message that the power had been cut here. And I really wasn't sure if it was kind of a fluke or if it was going to come back on, because, like, maybe it was just a glitch for a minute,” Demartin said. “I finally saw a message around 5am and it said power may be off for three days. And I said, Oh my gosh, the food's not gonna last. There's no way the fridges can hold temperature for that long.”
Denver7 ran into Demartin Thursday morning, as she was moving all her food back into her restaurant after moving it to Louisville for storage.
“It's just been a nightmare,” Demartin said.“We still have to make rent, you know. And if the community doesn't pull together and make a good plan, small businesses like mine won't make it.”
