Hurricane-force wind downs power lines, fans wildfires in Colorado with more on way
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Crews were cleaning up Thursday, but still preparing to do more after hurricane-force winds downed power lines and stoked wildfires along Colorado’s Front Range and across the Great Plains.
The wind that in places exceeded 100 mph (160 kph) arrived Wednesday evening after Xcel Energy protectively shut off power to much of its service areas in eastern Colorado. The goal was to prevent downed lines from starting fires – and power lines were indeed destroyed in several areas.
As of Thursday afternoon, power was restored to about 60% to nearly 700 miles of power lines deenergized by the utility. Some 37,000 Xcel customers across the Front Range and Rocky Mountains were still without power.
However, a new series of outages was expected on Friday, with forecasts of even stronger winds over a longer period.
As crews worked to restore power to already affected customers, even longer outages were likely Friday, the head of Xcel Energy-Colorado warned at a news conference.
“The power will not come back as soon as the wind event ends because we have to inspect the lines,” said the utility’s president, Robert Kenney.
In central Denver, power was cut overnight, furniture was torn from apartment balconies, at least one window in one apartment was torn out and the ground was littered with torn branches Thursday.
Winds Wednesday afternoon and Thursday fanned wildfires of still-undetermined origin in eastern Colorado, burning at least 14,000 acres (5,700 hectares) in Yuma County, local emergency management officials said in a Facebook post.
A grass fire in southern Cheyenne, Wyoming, caused a neighborhood to be evacuated for several hours Wednesday evening. However, no structures burned.
High wind and red flag fire warnings were in effect Thursday across much of Kansas. Blowing dust reduced visibility so much that a stretch of Interstate 70 near the state’s western border with Colorado was closed, the Kansas Department of Transportation said in a news release.
The release urges motorists to consider delaying non-essential travel.
In the Pacific Northwest, heavy rain continued to fall along with snow in the mountains. Washington state’s rivers have been falling since recent floods inundated communities, damaged roads and prompted more than 600 rescues.
Parts of southern Oregon and northern California are expected to see several additional inches of rain and strong winds Friday and through the weekend.
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Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Gene Johnson in Seattle and David Zalubowski in Denver contributed.
