NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – High winds across the state on Friday caused low visibility, outages, and damage to property. Xcel Energy said many of its customers in Eastern New Mexico were without power Friday afternoon because extreme winds caused damage to its power lines.
“We’ve had some damage to poles in multiple locations in Eastern New Mexico already this morning by midday. We expect as the winds intensify, or at least stay where they are, we will see a continuing damage,” said Wes Reeves with Wildfire Mitigation for Xcel Energy.
It was a windy weather Friday, with trash flying around Downtown Albuquerque and flags blowing in the wind. Other parts of the state were struck with more ferocious winds.
Xcel Energy said in its Texas and New Mexico service areas, about 65,000 customers were without power around 2:30 Friday afternoon. On Thursday, the company announced it was going to shut off power to 17,000 customers in Eastern New Mexico and Texas to reduce wildfire risk. Xcel said restoring power for some customers may last hours or days.
In the East Mountains, the Central New Mexico Electric Co-Op said it had broken poles and scattered outages in their area, with crews working to repair those. PNM also announced Thursday it planned a possible power shutoff for Las Vegas but cancelled it on Friday. The company is still encouraging customers to be prepared.
“We’re urging all customers in the Las Vegas area, in the East Mountains area, anywhere that it’s going to be really windy today, to prepare for the possibility of weather-related outages,” said PNM Spokesperson Kai Porter.
Hobbs, Roswell, and Artesia schools cancelled school Friday due to the high winds.
Both energy companies urge customers to stay up to date on their website for power outages. Those can be found here and here.