We Were Lucky There Was Not Another Marshall Fire - BUT Hardships For the Elderly & Poor Were Difficult

I truly understand the reasoning behind the Public Safety Power Shutoff - especially for certain areas where there are trees and other easily flammable materials next to, or under, the power lines. I remember the Marshall Fire well, and also several other fires near and in Boulder.

But, Excel's grid is completely CRAZY. We live in "Affordable Housing" that is all electric, on 28th Street (US 36) between Valmont and Mapleton in the city of Boulder. Our power was off for 7 1/2 hours on Wednesday, 17 December. We had two brief outages on Thursday, 18 December. Our power went off at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, 19 December, and was restored at 8:33 p.m. on Saturday, 20 December. Businesses on both sides of 28th Street north of Valmont never lost their power; businesses south of Mapleton never lost their power (both areas I'm speaking of are within regular sight). The Excel substation on the east side of 28th Street, just north of Mapleton, never lost it's power. - But because of the crazy arrangement of Excel's power grid, we did.

I have several illnesses, but for the last 18 months, I have been the primary care-giver for my roommate, best friend, and "sister-from-another-mother," who has stage 4 breast cancer and congestive heart failure. Her heart is, as of 3 months ago, working at less than 50% of what it should. We do not own a vehicle, as it is too expensive, and we pay almost 50% of our income just for rent. I travel by foot or bus, and we use Via Transportation for my friend's visits to her MDs, the hospital, and the Cancer Center. It is difficult for my friend to navigate the apartment with her walker - let alone in the dark with a small flashlight hanging from her walker in total darkness. She has only the use of her left hand at this time, and she is right-handed, which makes things worse at all times.

When the power went out, I opened our 3 thermal bags and placed blocks of "fake ice" in them to keep necessary medicines cool, as well as the Ensure my friend has to drink (and it has to be cool or cold) to get her needed protein intake for the day. I put in a few other items that we didn't want to spoil. But we had no ice chests, and no ice - so everything in the refrigerator and freezer spoiled, and had to be thrown away today. More than half of our foodstuffs are gone, thanks to the power outage, and we won't have money to purchase more until the 2nd Wednesday of January, when the Social Security check arrives. I'll spend both of my pensions and my Social Security check to pay the rent on January 5th, 2026. - All of our friends had no place to store our perishable items, so we were just flat out of luck.

We generally ate peanut butter sandwiches and drank water throughout the entire time. I could read during the day, but my friend usually watches TV or videos; she was out of luck on 3 of those 4 days. We had cold running water, and, at least, COULD flush the toilets. I offered to walk to various fast food restaurants nearby to pick up food for various meals, but my friend was afraid I'd get blown away, struck by blowing items, or hit by a vehicle as I crossed 28th Street. I went out today and used our Christmas present money to replace a few needed items from the refrigerator and freezer.

Luckily, by staying inside and opening the only door a few times, our interior temperature only dropped 10 degrees. With the cancer and the heart failure, my friend is always cold. Having the temperature stay above 60° was a blessing. Again, I am extremely happy that there was no recurrence of a huge wildfire driven by the high winds. But it was an extremely stressful event for two older ill ladies, on their own, without transportation or communications, and absolutely ZERO power accessibility. No working telephone, radio, television, computer - nothing. One neighbor stopped by, asking to use our telephone during the ordeal, and we just laughed.

Maybe the little strip of 28th Street in Boulder between Valmont and Mapleton should be moved to another portion of the Excel power grid? Why the heck is it connected to an - apparently - extremely high-risk area? - It's just crazy.