Boulder Creek still in the dark with another power shut off looming

Many Boulder Creek residents woke up Tuesday morning for the third straight day with no power.

“It’s frustrating as hell,” Boulder Creek resident Betsy Flickinger said.

Across the town, people were filling up gas cans for their generators and attempting to get internet and phone service to find out when they’ll be back on.

“I’m the caretaker here of a gentleman whose ill, and I have to take care of the generator and all that. I mean people drop food off and ar taking care of us as much as they can take care of us,” Flickinger said

Boulder Creek, Davenport and Bonny Doon are all a part of the power shutoff estimated to begin at 10 p.m. However, a majority of those residents still haven’t had their power restored from Saturday evening’s shutoff.

“It’s crazy…it’s freezing in the house,” Susie Austin said.

Austin’s generator broke a few days ago but still hasn’t had any luck finding someone to fix it. She said she’s had to throw out hundreds of dollars in groceries.

“The yogurt. The cottage cheese. The milk. That stuff you can’t save it,” Austin said.

Some things like dairy you have no choice but to dump, but the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz says if you may not have to throw out things like bread or produce.

“If they have perishable food that has been refrigerated we can take that, and before we take it we’ll make sure the temperature’s okay on it,” Suzanne Willis with the Second Harvest Food Bank said.

Willis says they haven’t seen a spike in customers since the power shut off, but even if you don’t normally rely on the food bank you’re welcome to come in

“So many people need food in our community, and then to lose what little you might have we want to make sure anyone knows they can contact us,” Willis said.