Almost 1,500 Sedona residents and businesses along Hwy. 179 lost electrical power on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 29 and 30.
By Susan Johnson
Larson Newspapers
Almost 1,500 Sedona residents and businesses along Hwy. 179 lost electrical power on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 29 and 30.
Hardware for a high-voltage switching cabinet in one of Arizona Public Service’s underground systems failed, causing substantial damage to nearby equipment.
Approximately 500 customers were affected from 2 to 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Others had their power restored sooner, according to Mike Johnsen, APS community development manager.
“Our operations folks re-configured the system so we could bring about 1,000 customers back online by 4 p.m.,” Johnsen said. “But, we had to wait for the loads to lighten before we could bring back the rest.”
APS crews continued to work through the night preparing for replacement hardware.
At 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, a new cabinet was delivered to the site and the system was taken offline again so that it could be connected.
“Our service center in Cottonwood had one in inventory,” Johnsen said. “Technicians worked through the night to prepare for it.”
Power was restored to all customers by 9 a.m. Sunday.
Residents got through the interruption by bundling up and finding alternatives to their original plans.
Lynn and Bob Sanford live in the Chapel area, where power was out Saturday evening.
“We listened to the Patriots beat the Giants on a little black, battery-operated transistor radio,” Lynn Sanford said. “The temperature inside got down to 56 degrees so here we are, sitting in the living room, in the dark, with the dogs, wearing four layers of clothes and listening to football.”
Michael Steinhart, general manager of Radisson Poco Diablo Resort, had a slightly bigger problem.
“We have a back-up generator for the resort’s main building, but not for the others,” Steinhart said. “There were some very irate guests sitting here without food, heat or telephones.”
Although it is APS policy to call business customers when an outage is planned, Steinhart said he was not notified in advance of Sunday’s temporary suspension of service.
Susan Johnson can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 129 or e-mail sjohnson@larsonnewspapers.com
