Rexburg residents survive power outage

Neighborhoods all over East Idaho were without power Wednesday morning, but when you have lived in a town like Rexburg for as long as Kathy Goff, you get used to it.

“We’re doing pretty good. It’s just another day in the life for us. It doesn’t seem that bad, we’ve got a fireplace to keep us warm,” said Goff.

With board games and her kids to keep her company, Goff said something good came out of all the commotion.

“I think that’s the positive thing about having a power outage, you get to just sit around, and bundle up with blankets and kinda chill. Things slow down and it’s nice,” she said.

Things slow down for everyone, but it doesn’t mean all of them are fairing the dark well, which is why Goff is sharing the warmth.

“It’s pretty warm here and we’ve got food. I just didn’t want people to have to suffer or be uncomfortable so we might as well share what we have,” she said.

Kathy isn’t the only one who had to share the heat with neighbors. Across the street Shauna Ringle woke up to a different reality. She heard about the outage while watching the news before she lost power.

“I thought, ‘Oh that’s horrible because it’s so cold outside and everything,’ and just then my power went out,” said Ringle.

Luckily for her, Verl Soderquist and Janet Soderquist were nearby to help.

“Well, in our case it was pretty easy. We have an auxiliary generator for the house so I went out and pressed the start button,” said Verl Soderquist.

He said he saw this coming years ago and wanted to be prepared.

“We’ve been here six years and this is the fourth big outage, not counting the 10 or 15 minute ones. We always invite our neighbors over, theoretically to pop popcorn and watch movies,” said Soderquist.