After a tiring day’s work and unusually slow traffic on the drive home, you expect to walk in your door, relax for a few minutes and then prepare for a lively evening because your teenage daughter’s friends are on their way over. You are relieved because dinner for all will be ready soon. Slow cookers are the best, and energy efficient, too!

You open the door expecting a whiff of your early morning prep work, but instead see the oven clock blinking at 12:41. Clearly your home lost power, and though the power’s been restored, the slow cooker is barely warm, the food is raw and the kids will arrive soon. So much for relaxation!

What happened? Read on.

Earlier in the day a worker—performing  excavation work a mile away—failed to call
8-1-1, and subsequently dug into one of Xcel Energy’s major electric lines—a line that feeds electricity to you and your neighbors’ homes. The worker wasn’t hurt this time, but his mistake caused an instant loss of electric service to about 12,000 residential customers and several businesses, not to mention a loss of signal lights that caused a minor traffic accident which snarled traffic all over town. A fire truck arrived first, and then police, to manage traffic for several hours until electric service was restored.

There are three important reasons anyone who plans to dig (using mechanized equipment or even a shovel) is required by law to call 8-1-1 before digging:

1. The first is very simple: safety. A ruptured gas line or compromised electric line not only endangers the person who hits it, but also the entire neighborhood.
2. Second, when an electric or gas line is damaged or severed during digging, a service outage can last for hours or days.
3. Third, the costs to repair and restore service can be very costly.

Please do what’s right. Always call 8-1-1 several business days before you dig. Your advance call gives utilities time to visit your site and mark their utilities with colored-coded flags or paint. Knowing what’s below ground before digging, then digging carefully, helps everyone around you continue his or her day as planned. No surprises.

By Connector, Karen Riggenbach-Vaughn