Snow shuts off power for hundreds in Las Animas

The snowfall created a number of power issues throughout southern Colorado. Especially in Las Animas County. Hundreds of households have been without power since the early hours this morning.

In Trinidad, the snowfall had little impact on power, but just outside in the county is where the snow packed a different punch.

According to San Isabel Electric, we are currently down to less than 2,000 meters of the line without power. Half of that is located in Las Animas County. At the peak, San Isabel had around 4,000 meters of the line without power.

San Isabel officials say all the damages are minor. The heavy wet snow is the main culprit of the down lines caused by either snow or broken tree limbs.

Crews are currently working to bring back power to all of the households in Las Animas as well as Huerfano and Pueblo counties. However, they do expect there to be some without power heading into Thursday morning.

“Just about our whole district was definitely out of power, and our district probably has somewhere about 4,000 people,” said Lloyd Holliman, Chief of the Stonewall Fire Protection District just outside of Trinidad. Holliman had been working with San Isabel since the snow started falling overnight. “This snow was wet heavy snow creating some weights on the power lines we had a lot of outages.”

Including Holliman’s office, they’ve been running on a backup generator all day at a majority of the stations.

“Turning power back on is a slow process, but San Isabel is working up that highway 12 corridor,” said Holliman. “By this evening the majority will be powered up.”

For Holliman, people living in this part of Colorado expect the worst.. because they live in the best.

“We’re going to have situations like this as well as with fire. But to be here, it’s all worthwhile,” said Holliman.