Xcel Energy did not think this out clearly in my opinion

What Xcel Energy might've considered a reasonable plan was instead executed poorly, in my opinion. They created a very difficult situation for so many people in Colorado. Nobody wants any fires to start, but the power being shut off for more than 24 to 32 hours was not humane especially in light of the extreme lack of information/updates. Our household and neighborhood in the Applewood area of Golden went without electrical power beginning at 9:30 PM Saturday, April 6th and lasted through 4:15 PM Tuesday, April 9th, 2024. I received one text on April 6th telling me there is an outage in my neighborhood three minutes after the power went out. That was the only text message I ever received as we went hour by hour, day by day wondering when we would see power restored. On Tuesday, we saw an electrical worker down the street and asked him if he knew anything about why our particular street and area was still without power. He said a tree had fallen on a power line (the day of the windstorm on the block behind us) and that a company was called to cut down/remove the tree. That little bit of information would've been greatly appreciated had we known earlier instead of being kept "in the dark." I would imagine our family is not the only one that had to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of groceries from our refrigerator as well as a stand-alone freezer. With groceries being as expensive as they are now and Xcel Energy stating that they offer NO reimbursement for loss experienced by their customers (while also apparently saying there is a form on their site to submit a "claim"?)....what's the point of providing a form if there's no reimbursement offered, you'd be giving your customers "false hope"....it shows a lack of care and lack of accountability by Xcel Energy. The frontline workers did what they were told to do, I don't find any fault with them at all. However, the higher-up managers, whoever was involved in this decision, I believe they didn't consider the far-reaching impact of their decision. A preemptive shut down is acceptable when truly justified if you are able to get power back for everyone fairly quickly. I feel sorry for the schools and businesses as well as those who rely on electrical power for so many types of medical devices. If a business or residence doesn't have the money to purchase a generator, well, I guess we are out of luck. Thanks to Governor Polis for his valid and forthright response to Xcel Energy regarding this event. I, as well as many others, in my opinion, would like to think that perhaps a good way for Xcel Energy to make amends with their customers, even if it’s only for this one particular event, is to create a real, actual reimbursement form that actually truly will activate a reimbursement to its customers who can attach two or three month's of grocery receipts and perhaps receipts with photos of food resources lost during this unnecessarily long power outage or perhaps that amount credited to their monthly utility bill, even if the allowable amount is as low as $200 to $300, it would at least show that Xcel is taking responsibility. We lost at least $500 to $600 worth of food resources and emergency food resources we had in our refrigerator as well as a stand alone freezer by the morning of April 9th. Had we known the outage would last that long, we could've come up with an alternative place to store these resources. Xcel Energy doing something to help its customers replace food supplies would help regain trust and would be better than doing nothing at all. Consistent updates and reimbursement for lost food resources are my two suggestions to improve Xcel Energy's business practices.