Thousands Still Without Power One Week After Windstorm

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Hirshberg family is one of thousands in northern Utah who were still waiting for power to be restored after a powerful windstorm roared along the Wasatch Front last week.

Counting last Tuesday, the Hirshbergs have now been without power for seven days.

“These are our coolers,” Ellie Hirshberg said as she took KSL on a tour of her home to show how the family is getting by. “We lost a bunch of vegetables and perishable things.”

Day 7 of being without power for still thousands of residents .. the challenge they are facing and crews @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/jWXZ2vfDiG

— Dan Rascon (@TVDanRascon) September 14, 2020

Walk into her backyard and it became clear why they don’t have power. Massive trees were down everywhere, and with them — power lines.

A power pole on the side of the house was snapped in half like a toothpick, and one power line even penetrated the wall of their home.

“It’s a mess. It’s a bleep show. It’s a complete bleep show,” she said. “A neighbor lent us a generator and we have the generator hooked up outside with gas and it’s plugged into our internet router.”

For Hirshberg, the internet is everything. Her 9-year-old son is now trying to do online schooling and get through assignments, but their internet was struggling.

“I got kicked off the internet two times today,” her son Silas Hirshberg said.

“It’s a little bit crazy that in this day and age our number one priority is to hook up the router. Hot water and router are our two priorities right now,” Ellie Hirshberg said with a smile.

Hirshberg is an intensive care unit doctor, and her husband is also a doctor. Their lives were already extremely hectic with the virus, and now this.  

“From an organizational standpoint, it’s just been a little difficult. We all have busy schedules we all have places to be,” she said.

Billy Peche lives a couple of doors down the street. He too was putting ice in his refrigerator to try and keep things cold. He has two children in school.

“It’s not been very fun,” said Peche. “The most difficult thing right now has got to be school. Salt Lake City school district is 100% online. We lost our internet. We got it back but it’s spotty sometimes.”

Both families considered themselves lucky to have generators and friends who were helping them get through this.

“The silver lining is the kids have not been playing Xbox. They’ve been reading more,” said Peche.

“We’ve played some games. We’ve done some camping in our house and we been reading every night,” said Hirshberg.