COLORADO SPRINGS — Strong wind gusts have been no stranger to Colorado over these past few weeks. Today, we are expecting between 30 and 60 mph wind gust speeds throughout our region.
Colorado Springs Utilities is prepared for today’s wind gusts throughout the city. They say they’re not anticipating a windstorm to the strength of the one we had a few weeks ago in the Springs, but they do have crews on standby to respond to damaged infrastructure in emergencies.
The crews have stocked the trucks with fuel and tools, and they have a set rotation of staff prepared for any wind damage we may encounter today. I spoke with Kenneth Murry, the manager of electric construction, operations, and maintenance at Colorado Springs Utilities. He says the city has almost completely recovered from the last windstorm here a few weeks ago, a storm that had seen over 100 mph wind gusts in some regions, uprooted trees, and damaged infrastructure.
“We are approximately 99 percent complete. We have all the debris picked up, all the poles replaced, and we may have, that I’m aware of, one pole that needs some attention,” said Murry.
“Our first and foremost concern is our customers, so it’s a huge relief because a lot of the people that work here live in the same communities. So, the impact to them is almost the same, if not greater to the people that live here also.”
Colorado Springs Utilities has constructed 75 percent of the city’s powerlines underground. They say this helps keep the percentage of power outages at a lower rate compared to other cities that do not have most of their lines underground.
Still, if you see a downed power line, do not approach it. This could be dangerous. If you’re in an event where you do lose power because of the wind, report it to Colorado Springs Utilities. You can do so by visiting here.
