Power shutoffs in Colorado result in a mad rush for generators and flashlights, leave many businesses scrambling
Power outages put in place due to extreme wind conditions this week in Colorado are presenting challenges for many business owners on the Front Range. The cities of Golden and Boulder are some of the hardest-hit areas.
The power outage for Ado's Kitchen on the Hill in Boulder started on Wednesday morning.
"It's just a complete ghost town. Windy ghost ghost town, too," owner Ado Salguero said.
Late in the day, Salguero was preparing to lose thousands of dollars if power stays out through Friday.
"It's a pretty great impact -- three days of ... no business," Salguero said, "Food cost, what's it going to cost to get right back up."
Thousands of others in Boulder County were also in the dark on Wednesday. Some of the people who were affected wound up paying a visit to McGuckin Hardware in Boulder.
"It's pretty much every 5 minutes someone's coming in looking for a generator that we don't have," said Ryan Lorek, hardware department manager. "We're out. We're all out."
Lorek said the store sold out early in the evening on Wednesday but they planned to have more back in stock on Thursday.
The flashlight aisle didn't fare much better.
"It used to be full this morning, now it is completely wiped out," Lorek said.
McGuckin employee Elizabeth said she has weathered problems this week that a simple flashlight can't fix.
"I was walking out of school and I went to my car and there was a giant tree on top of my car," she said.
Neighbors say wind gusts near 100 mph knocked the tree over, but Elizabeth still came to work.
"I love helping people. I love McGuckins. So just be where I can be and being helping people," Elizabeth said.
That seemed to be the spirit throughout Boulder Wednesday as crowds filled the hardware stores and waited for the winds to die down.
A lot of people in Boulder County still have the Marshall Fire in their thoughts. That wildfire in 2021 spread quickly across Boulder County in extreme winds and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. Residents said they'd rather deal with these power outages than risk another wildfire that might potentially be sparked by downed power lines.