Horrific for vulnerable people and Incredible losses

I am horrified that the Xcel CEO has been taking a record high salary, while deferring all of the maintenance that needs to be done on all of the aging power lines and infrastructure. The utility poles in Lafayette are many, many decades old, and are in dire need of replacement. Their greedy deferred maintenance has caught up to them. Xcel punished us, punished us dearly for their decision not to the proper repairs. And Xcel also punished us because they are facing a multi billion dollar lawsuit for not doing proper maintenance prior to the Marshall Fire. Xcel is very poorly run, and they must be held accountable. They will need the PUC to oversee them going forward, and to ensure that all necessary maintenance is being done. The poles need to be replaced or buried. Our power was deliberately turned off for more than 30 hours even though the lines are buried in our neighborhood, and the power was left on just across Baseline. There was no communication from Xcel. I had to drive around the neighborhood to charge my phone, so that I could make plans to stay safe. When I tried calling Xcel to find out what was going on, no one would even answer the phone. I finally called to report an emergency, and the woman was so rude, and told me she had no information except that the power would likely be shut off for more than 24 hours. There are many of us who have multiple medical problems and are very vulnerable, and cannot, I repeat, cannot have our power turned off deliberately for such a long time. I was displaced to a hotel, and then got so sick that I ended up in the ER on Sunday morning. The doctors and nurses at GS hospital told me they were scrambling due to a large influx of people needing oxygen. The nurse said that Boulder Community hospital was completely overwhelmed with patients, so they were sending them to GS. Xcel did not even inform emergency staff or hospitals about their disastrous, cruel plan!! That is beyond outrageous! When I returned home from the ER, the power was STILL shut off, so I had to spend another night at a hotel while feeling completely ill. And when I returned home, I had to throw an entire refrigerator of food away. Xcel‘s selfish, cruel decision cost me thousands of dollars, including a $100 ER copay. In listening to the comments at the PUC zoom meeting, the losses incurred by businesses, restaurants, and residents will total multi millions of dollars, probably at least $50 million. A wildfire may have been less costly than what they did. Agilent alone lost several million dollars of products. Restaurants lost millions of dollars in products and lost wages. And residents had to pay costly ER/hospital bills, they lost wages, food, and brand new appliances! Xcel needs to be held responsible for all of these losses, and I really hope they are faced with a class action lawsuit. If they ever do this again, they will ABSOLUTELY be sued. This cruelty will not be tolerated. Going forward, the PUC needs to make it clear that Xcel linesmen need to be out here on a daily basis, either fixing, replacing or burying lines. The PUC will need to oversee this maintenance since Xcel clearly cannot be trusted. I would also ask that the PUC total all of the losses, and then demand that Xcel pays restitution. Since the only thing that Xcel’s CEO cares about is money, paying restitution is the only way he will understand that this can NEVER happen again.