Black Hills Energy: Be Prepared For Outages Through Saturday

A spokeswoman for Black Hills Energy says Cheyenne area customers should be prepared for power outages through Saturday as exceptionally strong winds are expected to continue to pound southeast Wyoming over the next couple of days.

Laurie Farkas issued the following release late Thursday afternoon:

"CHEYENNE, WY, March 12, 2026, 5 p.m. – With severe winds expected to last through Saturday, Black Hills Energy is advising customers to prepare for possible power outages over the next two days. Today’s hurricane-force wind gusts resulted in uprooted trees, broken branches, and debris falling into power lines, leading to multiple outages across Cheyenne.

Black Hills Energy crews are continuing to work in the area to respond to emergencies and repair damaged power poles and equipment so that power can be restored. Crews will work late into the evening to get the power back on to as many customers as possible. Due to the extent of the damage, some customers may remain without power overnight. Outage updates are available on the web at blackhillsenergy.com/extremewind-wy. Estimated restoration times can change based on system damage and other factors.

About the power restoration process

Black Hills Energy generally follows a restoration hierarchy that focuses first on safety and critical services, then on repairs that restore power to the largest number of customers.

1. Public safety and critical infrastructure
2. Transmission lines
3. Substations and distribution feeders
4. Lateral lines that provide power to neighborhoods
5. Distribution transformers
6. Individual customers

How will Black Hills Energy keep customers updated about their power? We will notify customers when power in their area has been restored through text message, email and phone calls. This approach will allow us to inform as many

customers as possible about the status of their power, but it’s not exact. Some customers may receive these notifications and still be without power. This could be due to a variety of factors, so we are asking customers to contact us directly by reporting an outage on the Web or by calling us at 888-890-5554.

Outage updates are also available on the web at blackhillsenergy.com/extremewind-wy."

A wind gust of 90 miles per hour was recorded on Thursday at the Cheyenne Airport. That is a record going back at least three decades while such records have been kept.