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BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — Coloradans who are still without power after the weekend windstorm are having to throw away food and other items that must be kept cold.
For Boulder County residents who lost power, spoiled food collection is available at Western Disposal at 2051 63rd St. Many arrived on Monday visibly upset with having to place expensive groceries in the trash.
“It’s just a little emotional. It’s a lot of waste. I had grocery shopped right before the weekend,” Leslie Barrett told FOX31 through tears.
Barrett had a freezer full of items that could not be kept cold with the ice she had purchased. The items in her box included fresh turkey and organic eggs.
Others say having to throw out expensive food only adds to the burden of coping with the damage left behind by this weekend’s massive windstorm.
“Our house gets hundred-mile-an-hour winds. We’ve had big windows blown out before this. Was a lot of wind, it shook the house,” Kit Tennis said.
Tennis also explained that he was receiving inconsistent communication when contacting Xcel Energy.
“We called in to note that we had an outage. Five minutes later, if we called back, it said we didn’t have an outage,” Tennis said.
Xcel Energy responds after cutting off power in Colorado
The Problem Solvers asked Xcel Energy about whether residents will be reimbursed for the cost of their food and whether communication problems will be addressed. Xcel provided the following statement to FOX31.
“We understand outages can cause challenges for customers, and we work hard to safely restore service as quickly as possible. We know that during lengthier outages, some customers may have food spoil in their refrigerators or freezers, however, Xcel Energy does not reimburse customers for spoiled food caused by outages. This includes proactive de-energizations, which we may carry out in periods of high wildfire risk to help keep the public and our communities safe.
We received several reports of customers receiving incorrect or inconsistent information with our outage map and notifications. We identified an underlying technology issue behind the reporting system and outage map providing customers with inaccurate status information. We have since corrected the problem. To be clear, our operations teams had accurate outage information and have been actively restoring power to all impacted customers.
We know this long outage is challenging, and we thank our customers for their patience and support of our crews in the field.”
Xcel Energy
Food banks in Colorado are preparing for any increase in need. Community Food Share, the Feeding America food bank serving Boulder and Broomfield counties, is mobilizing resources to meet the heightened demand.
For information about assistance, visit communityfoodshare.org or call 303-652-3663.
The Problem Solvers asked insurance experts whether it is worth it to file a claim for the loss of groceries. The Rocky Mountain Insurance Association told FOX31 it may not be.
Policyholders should compare their loss to the deductible they will have to pay. One FOX31 viewer tells the Problem Solvers her deductible would be as high as $2,000.
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