Photo Courtesy of Xcel Energy Inc.
Colorado's unprecedented floods damaged natural gas lines, power poles, and other equipment owned by Xcel Energy Inc., including this equipment in Boulder County.
As Colorado?s floodwaters recede, Xcel Energy Inc.?s crews are getting their first glimpses of areas cut off by the rushing water, and the damage it wrought on poles, wires, natural gas pipelines and electrical equipment.
Gabriel Romero, a spokesman for Xcel (NYSE: XEL), joined a crew that the utility on Friday sent into Four Mile Canyon and Lee Canyon above Boulder in Boulder County. He shared pictures of what he saw, and the damage to the utility?s equipment, with the Denver Business Journal and talked about what he saw.
?I?ve seen the pictures and the videos, but when you are actually there, without the water, and you see the destruction that the water did ... In some areas, the creek went from being 10 or 20 feet wide to 150 feet wide,? Romero said.
?There were poles taken out, natural gas pipelines taken out ? and these were pipes that were 6 to 8 feet underground and now they?re exposed, right out in the open.?
?Poles were down in some areas, bent over ... there were crumpled natural gas pipes. There were heavy trees, branches, poles, you name it coming down with such incredible force that it crushed the conduits and the pipes that we use.?
Xcel typically builds its poles, and buries its pipes, in the right of way along the roads, so anything close to roads washed away during the floods is likely damaged, Romero said.
Rebuilding will take time, and it?s likely going to involve deciding where to locate equipment, he said.
Read more about Xcel?s damage, and rebuilding efforts here.
?We?ll have to go in and move those poles, because our right of way is now in the creek ? whereas it used to be outside the creek,? Romero said.
Cathy Proctor covers energy, the environment, transportation and construction for the Denver Business Journal and edits the weekly "Energy Inc." newsletter. Phone: 303-803-9233. Subscribe to the Energy Inc. newsletter
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