High winds and micro bursts last night wreaked havoc on electric service in the Estes Valley, and as many as 1,500 customers are still without power.
At the height of the outage, which began about 10 p.m. Saturday, as many as 3,000 customers lost power, said Estes Park Town Manager Jacquie Halburnt.
“We are used to heavy winds in Estes Park but last night we were going, “wow, this is really windy,” Halburnt said.
High winds and downed lines have also caused outages in Chaffee County, according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department. The company couldn’t be reached for comment.
Estes Park Light and Power customers remain without electric in Glen Haven and Allenspark with a few random spots in Estes Park and along Highway 34.
Power could be completely restored by late this afternoon or early this evening.
Estes Park power crews are are walking lines in rough terrain looking for breaks.
Sixteen linemen from Fort Collins and six from Loveland have joined the EP crews to speed up the process.
“We are fortunate to have backup from our neighbors in the valley to restore power to our customers as soon as possible,” said Reuben Bergsten, utilities director. “It’s our priority to accomplish this as soon as possible.”
The high winds blew trees into power lines and micro bursts broke at least two power poles. Fall River Lane, is temporarily closed after lines were brought down.
Allenspark has opened its fire house to those seeking shelter, food and water.
