Businesses Bounce Back After Power Outage
by Laura Monteverdi, Reporter
January 27, 2013 6:29 PM
An underground explosion early Friday morning left around 500 Xcel Energy customers in downtown Sioux Falls without power.
Early Sunday morning, Xcel announced they had successfully restored power to all of downtown Sioux Falls.
“I honestly believed it was north of us, but I got the call from some staff that came down and said that we were going to be down for the day,” said Lisa Kollis, owner of Optics by Howlin Vision on Phillips Avenue.
Optics by Howlin Vison was closed on Friday due to the outage, but luckily they didn't have to cancel on any patients.
“Thankfully we had another office in town that we could just move everyone over there and take care of them over there,” explained Kollis.
They weren’t the only business that had a back-up plan.
“We brought in some refrigerated trucks, freezer trucks to store food for a couple days. Not knowing how long the outage would have gone,” said Jerry Bremon, General Manager of Minervas Restaurant.
Minervas Restaurant on 11th Street and Phillips Avenue had their power turned on Saturday afternoon. While they were able to salvage about 90% of their food, the outage still meant no customers.
“It's a big loss for us. Weekends is kind of where businesses is at, so it's definitely been a big loss," said Bremon.
However, not every business was suffering. Some actually gained from it.
“We kind of lucked out. I guess we were one of the few businesses who had power this weekend so I guess we benefited from no competition," said Brian White, Bar Manager at Crawford’s Bar and Grill.
Phillip’s Diner was the last business to have power restored.
There is still no answer as to what caused the explosion.
