Crews Restore Power, Remove Tree from Semi

Hooking Hoist Chain to Tree

Tuesday’s storm front brought strong winds to the Lamar area and a dusting of horizontal snow, while Granada and Holly had to deal with greater accumulations.  Highway 287 south of Lamar was closed due to lack of visibility and El Paso County donated several tread-mounted vehicles to reach stranded motorists.

Some Lamar residents living on the south side of town were without power for several hours, beginning with outages right around 8am.  Crews from Lamar Light and Power made repairs including one case in which a sizable tree along West Elm Street and 9^th was blown over and on top of a semi parked on West Elm and shattered a power pole.

It wasn’t until Wednesday afternoon that crews were able to saw through some of the branches and connected a heavy duty chain to the tree trunk, lifting it off the power line and the semi.  When the vehicle had clearance, the driver pulled ahead, allowing the trunk to rest on the ground where work crews would be able to saw it into manageable pieces.

Last Year’s Tree Fall Site

During a wind storm last year a tree on the opposite side of the street was also uprooted by strong winds and damaged a portion of the roof of a the house on the property when it fell over.  No one was injured and the semi sustained damage to the top of the cab and a tarp.

By Russ Baldwin