Outage hits eastern section of downtown Cortez

Electricity was knocked out Wednesday in parts of downtown Cortez for about 30 minutes beginning at 9:30 a.m.

An Empire Electric employee said the impacted area included City Market and eastward between Main Street and Montezuma Avenue.

Safeway and The Cortez Journal also lost power.

Both Safeway and City Market’s backup power source allowed cashiers to continue working.

Safeway handed out free donuts to customers who were in the store when the outage struck.

“At least this didn’t happen during Fourth of July. Can you imagine?” said Safeway manager Chris Duran.

DO Organics, a recreational marijuana shop, shut down after it lost power, citing security concerns.

“We were forced to close the doors until power gets back up,” said a DO Organics spokesperson, noting security issues.

Power was being restored at 10 a.m.