Hurricane Force Winds: Some Without Power for a Week

Has your usual experience with electrical outages been like mine – power is restored within minutes or a few hours at most.  Rarely power interruptions last into the next day.  

Who could have predicted an Arctic cold front hitting Utah, Idaho and Wyoming at the end of a very hot Summer?  Especially one that brought not only early winterish temps but sustained high winds, some of hurricane force surging to 112 miles per hour? 

Who could imagine days without power, damage to homes and businesses and thousands of trees, not just missing branches, but uprooted and gone forever? The loss of old stately trees is emotional for some of us.  

But when these trees fall on roofs, fences, cars, and block roadways, the sentiment changes.  Insurance companies are working fast and furious to deal with the number of damage claims being reported.  

Roof shingles, porch mats, plastic patio furniture and building facia in-flight became a common sight. The contents of refrigerators and freezers became no longer safe to eat. In times of tight money, a catastrophe.  

Neighbors are still asking each other: “Why did your home not lose power at all?” Or, “Your outage was two days and mine was six (or longer)?” It is confusing and maddening.  

Information helps to understand. 

Power restoration to any area was determined by what exactly caused its interruption. In a large high-wind event, those causes vary.  

For example:  Some households and businesses were fortunate if their outage was attributed to damaged RMP substations or main circuits. Those early repairs restored power to 100,000 of the roughly 200,000 affected.

RMP was clearly overwhelmed with the scope and severity of the damage.  Waiting for the high winds to die down delayed power restoration for most of us. The safety of the repair crews -- from as far away as Iowa – was paramount.  

Then there was the matter of RMP requiring tree removal in order to safely approach some locations – particularly those power lines tangled in downed trees or power poles.

The making of a logistical nightmare.  

Some residents learned their community received power on multiple circuits. That can really be disheartening to have no power in the 5th, 6th or 7th day while your neighbors next door and across the street have been back to normal for days. I am describing my neighborhood.  

Another factor that delayed some power restoration was RMP service order errors.  I experienced it personally and saw it unfold through my neighborhood.  

I can only guess that when this event is fully behind us, RMP will have meetings to discuss what went right and what did not. That happens routinely in all response organizations after every disaster:  Best Practices are reviewed and Lessons Learned lead to better future outcomes.  

All-in-all I would say RMP responded well – in some cases heroically -- against formidable odds.