Nearly 1,000 homes and businesses in southwest La Plata County avoided a cold night without power Sunday thanks to an all-day effort by La Plata Electric Association crews.

Around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, a power pole broke near mile marker 18 on La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140), a few miles south of Hesperus, cutting off electricity to an estimated 980 LPEA customers.

Ron Meier, manager of engineering and member services, said a crew of five worked all day to repair the outage.

“It’s a major pole, it’s not a simple pole,” he said.

On further investigation, it turned out a wire that connects to the pole and anchors it to the ground snapped after the rod in the ground failed. Crews determined the rod had corroded and rusted as a result of groundwater.

According to the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, La Plata Highway was closed to traffic at times as crews worked to fix the problem. By early afternoon Sunday, traffic was flowing slowly with one lane of alternating traffic.

LPEA crews were able to restore power to all its customers around 5 p.m., Meier said.

The National Weather Service reported the overnight low Sunday night into Monday morning was 10 degrees.