Over 2,500 Laramie residents remain without power after a power pole caught fire Monday night, and the Albany County Emergency Management Agency has established a shelter for those who need a place to go.

“We have residents who have been without power for over fourteen hours,” said Albany County Emergency Manager Aimee Binning.

Local authorities notified residents of the continued power outage with phone calls shortly before 11 a.m. and text messages around at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday.

Margaret Oler, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain Power, says 2,670 customers remain without power while the storm continues to hamper repair efforts. The company is no longer providing a specific estimate of when repairs might be completed, saying only they expect power to be restored in the early afternoon.

“The storm is presenting them with very difficult working conditions,” says Oler. “We’re anticipating getting it turned back on this afternoon.

Binning said the latest projection puts power restoration sometime around 3 p.m.

“That’s an estimate,” said Binning.

Oler said the pole fire required crews to remove the damaged pole and install a new one. They had to disconnect all infrastructure attached to the damaged pole in the process, and Oler says such a repair takes several hours, even in the best of weather.

Crews worked through the night, with assistance from workers based in Casper, to replace the damaged pole.

We will update this story as new information becomes available.

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