More than 1,500 homes and businesses in the Animas Valley were without electricity Wednesday, but power had been restored by 4 p.m.
Indiana Reed, La Plata Electric Association spokeswoman, said 1,500 members began experiencing outages about 3 p.m.
She blamed the outage on foliage growth.
“The generous moisture that has encouraged foliage growth this spring today impacted the equipment of LPEA,” Reed wrote in a prepared statement.
Crews were dispatched, and by 3:45 p.m. power had been restored to about 1,000 members. By 4 p.m., an additional 500 members in Dalton Ranch had their power back, Reed said.
“Members are also reminded to be aware of foliage interacting with electrical equipment,” she wrote. “Something as innocent as a new aspen tree branch interacting with a line can potentially cause circuits to open and cut power.”
Any member that notices branches growing into the power lines are asked to request tree trimming at (970) 247-5786.
