Weekend Power Outage Caused by Trees

Over five thousand households lost power on Saturday night in the Cody area – thanks to some errant tree limbs.

A spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power says that trees in the lines in multiple places were the cause of the power outage that occurred just before 11:30 on Saturday night. David Eskelsen, company spokesman, says that the interruption to the transmission system affected three substations in the Cody area.

Temperatures at the time of the power outage were frigid, with windchills ranging between 21 and 30 below zero. Many of the customers without power struggled to keep pipes from freezing and keep outdoor animals safe.

Eskelsen adds that while all customers weren’t able to be restored until 9:45 Sunday morning, many residences had their electricity back by about 3 a.m. He says that a local team of a troubleshooter, a meter relay tech and a lineman crew worked together to do some switching to make the outage as small as possible.