Stress-filled weekend

While my husband received notification Friday evening for the April 6 -7 outage, he didn't look at his phone until Saturday about noon. What made the weekend difficult was the fact that I have court-ordered supervised visits with my daughter and her son (our grandson) on the weekends at our home. She was the one who notified me earlier on Saturday of the possible outage Saturday. We immediately started charging everything, finding the travel charge batteries and battery powered camping lanterns and radio. I also made sure my laptop kept charging until power went out which was not made real clear as to when and for how long. While power started going out in Louisville, CO at 3 p.m. our home did not lose power until 6 p.m. My husband was at the local King Soopers store when electricity turned off. Power continued off during Sunday - so no heat or electricity with the continuing visit and supervision. I have to record the visit, as well, as create a written transcription of the visit, so making sure the digital audio recorder and laptop could keep a charge Sunday was a challenge. During the day we went on a drive to charge the travel batteries and cell phones. Plus, I had to drive our grandson home both nights to Longmont so I had the opportunity to recharge my cell phone as well as re-charge two batteries. I have to upload audio files to a lawyer. I was able to email the lawyer via cell phones to update the office with the problem. Monday, the electricity came back on about 9:30 a.m. At the time I had been cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer with food which had already spoiled. I had just gone shopping on Thursday with a big order. I was not happy to lose the food as my husband and I are retired and on a strict budget. Anyway, the outage event, while now understandable for wind events, was poorly communicated. Even the outage map was inaccurate. We don't have a generator but will probably need to think about this if outages due to future high wind events are triggered. A process needs to be in place before another event likes this happens. I must say, since I did experience the Marshall Fire through evacation but no home loss, it did create some PTSD for me. It took me all week to settle down and accept the fact for what happened. Thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences for the weekend. I think Excel Energy can and must do better next time.