Power company records show no evidence of mass FLDS exodus

HILDALE - The rumors of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people moving from Hildale and Colorado City to Eldorado, Texas, by April 6 to help dedicate the first temple for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have proven to be unfounded.

That is, unless everyone left their homes and left the lights on.

Twin City Power Co. records from the past month, through 1 p.m. Wednesday, show that although there is some dip in power usage, the drop-off isn’t extreme.

Twin City Power Co. manager Loren Fischer said the fluctuations are due to weather changes and are nothing abnormal for this time of year.

Power usage was down Monday compared to Tuesday, despite a difference in daytime highs of 63 at the St. George airport on Monday compared to 70 on Tuesday. Yet, the National Weather Service reported that a warm front came through Monday evening, and for a brief time almost matched the daytime high compared to the low of 41 degrees Tuesday.

Looking at the past month of power records shows that Sundays always have a lower usage, and by Monday and Tuesday of this week, the usage was back up, reflecting that few, if any, people have left the area in the last week.

Even if people left lights on, sewer data for the twin cities has remained constant over the last week.

While a few homes in Hildale and Colorado City appear to have been shuttered up and abandoned, it’s no different than in other places of the county.

Hildale Mayor David Zitting said over the last few days, the two towns had seen a lot of media, and it was a “circus.” Zitting said he hadn’t noticed any difference in the amount of people in the two towns, and businesses were operating as usual.

As for today? Zitting is hoping things will get back to normal.

“I think tomorrow the sun is going to shine, and we are going to do what we always do and take one further step forward,” Zitting said.

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