The power went out across Cokeville on Tuesday, darkening the small Lincoln County community, forcing the Town Hall to close and disrupting business during an extended outage.
The outage affected about 432 homes and businesses in this town of about 500 people. By the time this story was published, the town was still in a blackout after a reported substation issue.
The town's senior center lost electricity along with everyone else, but for many of the town's seniors the day carried on much as planned.
Staff members said they spent the early part of the day checking on older residents to make sure nobody needed help.
They gathered sandwiches and fruit from a neighboring grocery store that still had power, and their weekly Bunco game was not interrupted.
Meals Still Delivered
"The Cokeville Senior Center is very important to our older generation in our community," director Mel Luthi said.
As the outage stretched on, center employees quickly adapted with food already on hand.
"Our head cook was able to deliver today's meal to our patrons," Luthi said. "This was a great opportunity for us to check on all we serve and see if they had any needs."
The welfare checks became an important part of the day's response.
Mayor Colby Peck said residents were especially mindful of neighbors who rely on oxygen machines and other medical equipment.
People began checking on elderly residents and locating generators for those who might need them.
"It's a tight enough community that they do a really good job of taking care of each other," Peck said.
Bunco Finds A Way
One person helping lead that effort was Kayla Orozco, the senior center's head cook.
Before settling into the day's activities, Orozco spent time calling and texting seniors and their family members.
"Being a small town, I know almost everyone," she said. "I call or text them or their families to make sure no one needed generators."
She said she had been told Rocky Mountain Power would provide generators for seniors, if necessary, though she was unaware of anyone who ultimately needed one.
Orozco's job title might be head cook, but she also helps organize activities at the center — a role she carried over after moving from bookkeeping into the kitchen.
"I also enjoy doing games with the people and we always have fun, so I kept that part as well when I moved from the bookkeeper to cook," she said.
When it became clear the center wouldn't have power for its regularly scheduled Tuesday dice game, she improvised.
"We always have games on Tuesdays, so today we moved it over to the park, and we sat in the shade and played Bunco with a group of ladies," Orozco said. "Everyone wins prizes, so I just tried to make the best of the situation."
Questions About Reliability
Peck said he had been told the outage stemmed from a problem at a local substation and appeared to affect the entire town and surrounding area.
The outage affected Town Hall, the senior center, and restaurants.
A gas station also temporarily lost cellular service, though water and sewer systems remained operational.
While outages affecting the entire community are not unheard of, Peck said they typically don't last so long
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
