Colorado snowstorm reduces power to 52,000, thousands still without power

At least 52,000 homes in Colorado lost power during the height of last week’s snowstorm, which brought meters of wet, heavy snowfall across the state, according to Xcel Energy.

As of 11 a.m. Sunday, 8,297 homes across Colorado were without power, an increase of nearly 6,000 homes since 10 a.m., according to the utility’s outage map. Most of the remaining outages – 98 outages affecting 8,232 homes – were in the Denver area.

As of 10 a.m. Sunday, Xcel officials reported that 2,624 homes across Colorado remained without power.

On a typical day, the power source experiences between 10 and 40 outages, according to Michelle Aguayo, spokeswoman for Xcel Energy.

Aguayo said trees were the primary cause of all outages across the state this weekend, as they were dragged onto power lines by the storm’s wet and heavy snow.

Aguayo said Xcel crews were still working Saturday evening to resolve outages that began as early as 5:30 p.m. Friday. New outages are still being reported.

“Crews typically initially focus on repairs that will restore power to most customers,” Aguayo said in a statement emailed to The Denver Post on Saturday. “Then teams will move to the neighborhood level before addressing outages at individual customers.”

Aguayo said this storm resulted in a high number of outages at individual properties or small groups of customers, so it will take time for crews to reach all affected locations and make repairs.