As tens of thousands of Xcel Energy customers remained without power Saturday morning, company officials said criticism of the firm’s communication methods was unwarranted.

Robert Kenney, president of Xcel Energy Colorado, said that the organization had communicated with customers as early as last week about potential power shutoffs, and had worked with local offices of emergency management to keep re-energization statuses up-to-date and accurate.

The president’s comments came at the end of a week during which the energy provider turned off power multiple times to at least 48,000 people amidst severe winds and extreme wildfire danger. As many as 160,000 were without power at some points, officials said, but Xcel had yet to provide a concrete timeline as to when that power would be restored before Saturday morning.

Xcel announced Saturday evening that most power was restored by 10 p.m., except for parts of the Evergreen area, which had been especially hard hit by the winds.

After many voiced their frustration with Xcel online, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a statement Friday afternoon asking the provider to give its customers more transparency as to when they would see a resolution to the outage.

“No Coloradan should be wondering if they will or will not have power, and when it may be turned on again, or worse, receive no communication or confusing communication,” Polis said in the statement. “Xcel energy must do their part in keeping communities safe, while also ensuring they are  informing communities with the best, most up-to-date information possible before, during and after weather events so that people, schools and institutions can make informed decisions.”

About 60,000 Xcel customers were still without power as of 11 a.m. Saturday, some of whom had seen no or only temporary power restorations since it was first shut off Wednesday morning, according to Xcel Energy’s Electric Outage Map, Kenney called the governor’s statement “unfortunate” and “uninformed.”

“I thought the governor’s statement about our communications was unfortunate and didn’t reflect, I think, an assessment of the full facts,” Kenney said.

CREWS COULDN’T START RESTORATION UNTIL FRIDAY NIGHT

While Xcel’s initial estimate was that crews would be able to begin the inspection and restoration work necessary to re-energize the lines around 6 p.m. Friday, the energy provider sent an update Friday morning that noted the severe conditions had pushed back that time frame until between 8 and 10 p.m.

But many of those crews, pushing up against the end of their 16-hour shifts, had to cease their work around 11:30 p.m., Kenney noted at Saturday’s conference. It was the second time this week that many of Xcel’s crews had to stop working for shift-related reasons.

“We have to be mindful of their safety as well, so they did go home and get rest and started back up at first light,” Kenney said. “It’s very difficult during the dark to be able to assess damage, and so we want to make sure that when we’re assessing damage, we’re assessing damage correctly.”

The president added that those crews restarted their work around 6 a.m. Saturday.

HOLIDAY EVENTS CANCELED DUE TO WEATHER AND OUTAGES

In light of the whirling winds and lack of power, several holiday events in the foothills were rescheduled or canceled Friday and Saturday.

In Superior, the Boulder Film Friends and Teen Night: Frost & Flannel Fest were rescheduled to January due to the wind conditions, according to the Town of Superior’s website. Additionally, the Superior Community Center and Superior Civic Space closed early Friday afternoon.

Golden’s Jingle on the Avenue, a free parade scheduled for Saturday featuring costumed characters jingling through downtown, was canceled as the town continues to face uncertain time frames for power restoration, according to Visit Golden’s website.

Those two events were not the only ones this week to face the repercussions of the severe weather and power outages. On Wednesday, Denver canceled its nightly Mile High Drone Show and Christkindlmarkt because of the severe winds.

Additionally, Eldora Ski Resort closed for the day Friday, citing the power outage.

As of 3:45 p.m. Saturday, over 400 flights in and out of Denver International Airport had been delayed, down from over 1,000 on Friday, according to flightaware.com. Thirteen had been canceled.