A work crew replacing a section of sidewalk at the Smiley Building severed a power line Wednesday, leaving 570 downtown Durango customers in the dark for about 40 minutes.
Lights went out at 2:30 p.m. and power came back on at 3:09 p.m.
“A backhoe busting up concrete tore into the conduit with the power line,” said Steve Gregg, operations manager for LPEA. “We were able to isolate a section and had all but five customers back quickly. It took 20 minutes more to restore power to the remaining five.”
The outage forced Peter Justesen, who works at Durango Diner, to stop cleaning the kitchen.
Although the lights were out at El Rancho, the bar – aided by plenty of natural light – accepted payments in cash.
In El Moro, Dave Woodruff said business would be great if the lights were on. Behind the bar, Leisha Lawson was staying busy cutting fresh slices of lime while other staff members sat at the bar.
Lawson and Woodruff joked that Moro’s most important functions were uncompromised by the power outage, as bitters and wines don’t need electricity to age.
At Wells Group, Realtors did business in the dark using their iPads and smartphones. Maria Carsburg, broker associate, said the outage meant she couldn’t easily “pull stuff up.”
Sales Manager Gaige Sippy said though nearly all of the firm’s business was conducted via electronics, if someone walked in ready to buy a house with $1 million in a suitcase, whatever the state of the electricity, Wells Fargo staff would find a way to make it happen.
During the outage, he said he bought bike tires from a store that couldn’t accept a credit card.
They took down his name and gave him the tires.
“That’s the nice thing about doing business in a small town,” Sippy said.
Gregg said a crew today will repair the conduit and install 300 feet of new cable.
daler@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the business where Realtors used their iPads and smartphones in the dark, and where Sales Manager Gaige Sippy works. It is Wells Group.
