LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — Xcel Energy said it is planning another round of 'public safety power shutoffs' or PSPS, in northern Colorado, Friday.
The shutoff is expected to impacted nearly 9,000 customers across Larimer and Weld counties, according to Xcel Energy.
It comes as Colorado continues to see little snowfall, low humidity and warmer than average temperatures.
"We all here in Colorado kind of understand that it's been extremely dry," said Andrew Holder, the Director of Communications and Local Government Affairs with Xcel Energy. "We have the lowest snow pack on records going back to like 1987. It's been extremely dry here in Colorado."
Holder told Denver7 that meteorologists with Xcel Energy were keeping an eye on the forecast and high fire danger.
"We've been monitoring this weather event that is coming in here on Friday, January 16, to some of our communities in northern Colorado Here for the last two or three days," Holder said. "We have a team of meteorologists that watch weather patterns throughout the day and into the evening to kind of track what we're looking at, particularly here on Friday, which is extreme wildfire danger environment."
The power shutoffs are expected to impact customers in the areas below:
View the Xcel Energy outage map below or here:
For those like Mark Waldo, who lives in Larimer County, preparation is key.
"Just make sure you know we got gas in the vehicles and milk, food, stuff like that," Walso told Denver7. "Since we have a generator, I'm not that concerned if we do lose power. But if you don't have one, it's it's more of an issue."
"It's a pretty unusual event, I guess. Recently here Xcel starting to shut the power off more being more proactive since the Marshall Fire, but it's, I'm not, I'm not too concerned about it," he added.
Meantime, organizations like Serve 6.8 are also gearing up to help anyone who may need it because of the power shutoffs.
"My first concern is always about people who are unprepared, right?," said Ashlee Schmitt, the Monilization Director for Serve 6.8. "These notices come out, and they're usually pretty last minute, and so a lot of people aren't prepared for shutoffs. What that means for feeding themselves, taking care of themselves, if they're medically compromised, we're always looking for the most vulnerable, to make sure that they have what they need."
Schmitt told Denver7 that because Serve 6.8 works in disaster relief, volunteers are always ready should they be needed.
She said in the previous round of shutoffs the organization was able to feed roughly 100 people with its mobile kitchen and thy're ready to use it again should they need to.
"The purpose of the mobile kitchen is to go out and feed in disaster," she said. "We always have food on hand."
During December's power shutoffs, many customers complained about the communication they were given from Xcel Energy.
Today's Forecast
Fierce winds, high fire danger across Front Range, NE Colorado Friday
On Thursday, Denver7 asked cel Energy if it felt the couple of days notice it gave customers was sufficient.
"We started our, you know, started informing a lot of our strategic partners, like our offices of emergency management and first responders, close to about 74 hours out before this the event and where we were seeing from a forecasting perspective," Holder said. "We are committed to as soon as we start seeing forecasted events that we want to start communicating with our customers. We started doing so yesterday morning, which was right around the two-day 48-hour mark."
Recently, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce released results from a survey it did of business owners impacted by December's public safety power shutoffs.
Below are some results from that survey:
