August 28, 2020 • EPE Related News
Storm with hurricane-force winds snaps power lines in Las Cruces
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Storm with hurricane-force winds snaps power lines in Las Cruces
Updated at 7:43 p.m. Aug. with information from El Paso Electric.
LAS CRUCES - A powerful storm touting hurricane-force winds tore through northeast Las Cruces and the village of Doña Ana Sunday, knocking out power in some areas.
Anthony Brown with the National Weather Service said rain from the storm that swept through parts of Las Cruces and Doña Ana Sunday evening amounted to about a quarter of an inch to a little over half an inch. Winds reached at least 70 miles per hour, Brown said, which were strong enough to snap power lines. The only report they collected was from Twin Peaks — north of Interstate 25 and east of US 70 — where the winds reached speeds of 83 miles per hour.
A Category 1 hurricane has winds ranging from 74 to 95 miles per hour.
Ernesto Rodriguez with El Paso Electric said there were six or seven poles knocked down off McCoy Avenue, four on Elks Drive and two on Valley Drive. “That is the main feed for thousands of customers,” Rodriguez said of the poles.
Monday evening, EPE spokesman George De La Torre reported about 7,500 customers were affected by the outage. He said crews worked overnight and restored power to about 3,900 customers before midnight and an additional 2,900 by 7:15 a.m. Power was restored to remaining 84 customers impacted by the storm at 6:45 p.m. Monday.
Winds snapped the poles, requiring them to be pulled out and completely replaced. Elks Drive was partially blocked because of the maintenance from about Reina Drive to Hatfield Road.
Edward Torres, a resident of the McCoy Avenue area, said the power in his area went out Sunday night around 7 p.m. and did not come back on until after midnight.
“It was pretty bad,” Torres said. “It turned all our power off. Had a few neighbors come over that were afraid of the dark. And then we saw the trucks going and poles down.”
Torres was busy Monday morning cleaning the debris that blew into his front yard. He said that while the storm was bad, the pea-sized hail in the area did not damage his roof like hail had five to seven years ago.
James Chavez of the Parkhill Drive area said a trampoline blew into his truck and dented it around 7 p.m. Sunday. He said he did not know where the trampoline came from, but none of his immediate neighbors have one. Basketball hoops were knocked over and small trees were uprooted in the area as well.
Las Cruces Public Schools had to reroute grab-and-go meals Monday from Vista Middle School — which was without power to Doña Ana Elementary School.
Brown said scattered storms with strong wind may come through the area Monday evening, but these types of storms have been “hit and miss” lately. “Whether it hits Cruces or not, you know, it’s impossible to say,” Brown said.
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