{"id":11614,"date":"2026-03-16T22:16:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-winds-batter-vallecito-down-power-lines\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:32:39","slug":"high-winds-batter-vallecito-down-power-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/high-winds-batter-vallecito-down-power-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"High winds batter Vallecito, down power lines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Several
Several trees fell and damaged a residential property Sunday in a Vallecito neighborhood where wind gusts of 50 mph swept through the area. (Courtesy of Upper Pine Fire Protection District)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Strong winds blew through the Vallecito area Sunday, knocking down trees and multiple power lines and forcing power to be shut off north of the Vallecito Marina to reduce fire danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just by the grace of god we did not have a wildfire start,\u201d said Bruce Evans, Upper Pine Fire Protection District chief.<\/p>\n

Wind gusts reached 50 mph, and Evans said eight power lines were blown down, one of which landed on the tin roof of a home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine electricity making contact with a metal roof,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really is pretty amazing that a house didn\u2019t start on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wind-felled trees also blocked several roads and did property damage to homes in the area.<\/p>\n

The fire danger posed by downed power lines near forested areas and homes prompted La Plata Electric Association to shut off power to the area for several hours Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were stretching ourselves really thin \u2026 to the point where we didn\u2019t have enough people to suppress a fire if \u2013 when \u2013 it started up there,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n

By about 5 a.m. Monday, LPEA had restored power to all meters in the Vallecito area. According to a Facebook post, line crews spent the night patrolling lines, removing trees and making repairs.<\/p>\n

The wind also hampered a kayak rescue on Vallecito Reservoir.<\/p>\n

An initial rescue attempt was made with a helicopter, but choppy water conditions made the rescue too difficult, Evans said.<\/p>\n

Cold suits and tag lines \u2013 rescue techniques utilized at Lemon Reservoir in the past, were also not an option this time because the two kayakers had been blown too far from the reservoir\u2019s shore.<\/p>\n

The La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office ended up commandeering a boat to complete the rescue successfully. One of the rescued kayakers was taken to Mercy Hospital in critical condition after being dumped from his boat and becoming hypothermic, Evans said.<\/p>\n

Windstorms are common on Colorado\u2019s Front Range, where recent storms have resulted in dayslong power shutoffs and evacuations.<\/p>\n

This was the first storm of similar magnitude in Vallecito in at least the past decade, said Chuck Freeman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lived here 10 years, and we haven\u2019t experienced this kind of wind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Evans said he anticipates similar windstorms will return, and Upper Pine and LPEA are working on conducting drills in the next few months.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, winds are expected to be less intense for at least the next few days because of high pressure building to the south, which will keep the jet stream positioned farther north and generally promote calmer surface conditions, said Gillian Felton, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

50 mph gusts raise wildfire risk and hinder kayak rescue on reservoir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,994,1500,1394,1836],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-11614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-trueanthem","tag-vallecito","tag-vallecito-reservoir","tag-windstorms"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18515,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions\/18515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=11614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}