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Much of New Mexico Without Power

Story Filed: Saturday, March 18, 2000 8:37 PM EST

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Much of New Mexico experienced a power blackout Saturday, shutting down radio and television stations across the state and snarling traffic in Albuquerque.

From Las Cruces to Gallup to Albuquerque, power went out shortly before 5 p.m.

The outage began with several sharp surges and then darkness. Power came back on in about 15 minutes, then went out again 15 minutes later.

Public Service Company of New Mexico spokeswoman Julie Gray was in the Albuquerque Museum when the power went out. She said she was trying to determine the extent of the outage.

The Gallup Fire Department opened its emergency response center and the central dispatcher in Raton in the northeast corner of the state reported that power was out in the communities of Cimarron, Springer and Ute Park.

Traffic lights were out, causing major snarls throughout Albuquerque.

Radio, television stations and newspaper newsrooms in Albuquerque, Sante Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, and Socorro were without power. The Associated Press bureau in Albuquerque was also in the dark.

People with battery-powered television sets were able to watch the NCAA basketball tournament. The state high school tournament, however, had to be halted when the lights went out in the Pan American Center in Las Cruces in the extreme southern part of the state.

The towns of Farmington in the extreme northwest corner of the state and Hobbs in the extreme southeast were not affected.

El Paso, Texas, had city-wide outage for about 30 minutes Saturday afternoon.

Raymond Ko, owner of the Ko Palace restaurant in Albuquerque, said he was afraid he was going to have to close if the blackout continued. His staff was putting candles on the dining tables.

``I'm not worried. We're cooking with gas,'' Ko said.

Copyright ) 2000 Associated Press Information Services, all rights reserved.

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 18, 2000

Answers

http://library.northernlight.com/EC20000318480000033.html? cb=200&dx=2006&sc=0#doc

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 18, 2000.

Mar 18, 2000 - 10:19 PM

Much of New Mexico Without Power Saturday; Traffic Snarls By Richard Benke Associated Press Writer

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIWZC6306C.html

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A fire in a transmission line knocked out electric power across much of New Mexico for more than an hour Saturday, snarling traffic in Albuquerque, shutting down radio and television stations and forcing the state high school basketball tournament to halt play. Candy Hurst, an adoption supervisor with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, was in her downtown Albuquerque office building during the blackout.

"I had to use my video camera light to get down seven flights of stairs," she said.

From Las Cruces to Gallup to Albuquerque to Santa Fe to Taos, power went out shortly before 5 p.m. It came back on line, in phases from south to north, after about 6 p.m. By 8 p.m., the southern part of the state was fully restored and Albuquerque was more than 85 percent restored, utility officials said. More than half of Santa Fe was also back on line.

Power to hospitals was 100 percent restored, Public Service Company of New Mexico spokeswoman Julie Grey said.

The outage began with several sharp surges and then darkness. Power came back on in about 15 minutes, then went out again 15 minutes later.

"We had a fire on one of our major transmission lines from the San Juan Generating Station (near Farmington) to Albuquerque," Grey said.

The fire caused the Four Corners Generating Station to "trip off line," Grey said. That power plant, adjacent to the San Juan plant, is operated by Arizona Public Service, Grey said.

The cause of the 4:45 p.m. blaze was not immediately determined.

Grey said power would be restored from south to north - the southern restoration being assisted by El Paso Electric Co.

All of PNM's 360,000 customers statewide were affected by the blackout, she said.

Traffic lights went out, causing major snarls throughout Albuquerque.

Another utility, Plains Electric, reported one of its stations also tripped off, which affected the Cimarron-Springer corridor as well as Taos, Angel Fire, Eagle Nest, Espanola and several other northern New Mexico communities.

Radio, television stations and newspaper newsrooms in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos and Socorro were affected by the blackout.

One exception was radio station KTAO in Taos.

"We're on the air at the moment because we're solar-powered," said Sara Allen, chief engineer at KTAO.

The Associated Press bureau in Albuquerque was in the dark, off and on, for nearly two hours.

People with battery-powered television sets were able to watch the NCAA basketball tournament. The state high school tournament, however, had to be halted when the lights went out in the Pan American Center in Las Cruces in southern New Mexico. The game was completed after about an hour's delay.

The towns of Farmington in the northwest corner of the state and Hobbs in the extreme southeast were not affected. Grey said Farmington, near the blacked-out power plants, has its own utility.

El Paso, Texas, also had a citywide outage for about 30 minutes Saturday afternoon.

Raymond Ko, owner of the Ko Palace restaurant in Albuquerque, said he stayed open - a la candlelight - throughout the blackout, and picked up extra customers from all the other restaurants that closed.

"We're cooking with gas," he explained.

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), March 18, 2000.

Fire caused outage that darkened much of New Mexico March 19, 2000 Web posted at: 1:17 a.m. EST (0617 GMT)

ALBURQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) -- A major power outage blamed on a grass fire left hundreds of thousands of people across New Mexico in the dark for several hours Saturday.

The outage affected most of the state's major cities, beginning around 4:30 p.m. Public Service Company of New Mexico spokeswoman Julie Grey told CNN most power was restored within three hours.

The blackout affected all of PNM's customers, which included 300,000 meters and a larger number of people. More than 250,000 people with a second company also were affected.

Grey said a grass fire under a major transmission line caused the initial failure. The outage also knocked out a key power generating unit at a utility company station.

Officials called it the state's biggest power outage in recent memory. New Mexico was affected by a 9-state blackout in 1996, but Grey said no one could recall a blackout like this.

The outage knocked out traffic signals and caused traffic back-ups in Alburquerque. In Las Cruces, the state's high school basketball playoffs were delayed when the arena lost power.

By 8 p.m., the southern part of the state was fully restored and Albuquerque was more than 85 percent restored, utility officials said. More than half of Santa Fe had its power restored.

Power to hospitals was 100 percent restored, Grey said. Backup generators kicked in at the area jails and juvenile detention centers, which were temporary locked down, officials in Albuquerque said.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/03/19/new.mexico.outage/index.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2000.