Power outage hits northern NM

power outage had affected a lot more towns than what was listed. Dulce was one of them and the power had went out since 5:00 AM on Thursday and restored at 10:00 AM. This is becoming a problem in northern new mexico. Since the power had been out a couple of times THIS WEEK, are the people affected going to have to pay for these days with out power. I hope not!!

Well usually if the power is out the meter isn't running. So I would hope no electricity is being used therefore there shouldn't be any usage for those days.

Too bad they don't have a bunch of wind turbines up there.

Well I'm a Rio Ranch resident staying with my fiancée here in Velarde,NM and we have had no power since 7am Thug Dec 11 and for all us living in ranchs here we have no water also!!!!!!! No power means no water because we have electric pumps in our water wells!! So what options do we have? We have children! If this was rio rancho power would have been on within a few hours! Its funny how small populated areas get the axe and the oh well explanation!

Regarding the power it's out from Chama to Pojoaque.

How long will the elderly be without power

of course you are. this is America you know.

My family is from chimayo. I have been trying to call my family for DAYS!!! It has been driving me nuts! I finally got in touch with them and they told me how it was. They do miss the old fashioned stove and the potbelly wooden stove they had before when they converted to electricity. When this all happened, my grandparents totally regretted it! Lucky for my other aunts, and uncles they were more fortunate since they have back ups. But my abuelitos, They are elderly. My mother got them electric stuff to make their lives easier. Now, this!

tens of millions of dollars are spend each year in repairing electric power lines and poles ... my question is why don't people along with their power companys
replace these lines with underground systems instead of those out of date poles which are highly unreliable ..so much money could be saved in the long run.

I'm in Espanola and we were out for just over twelve hours on Thursday. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last with the antiquated system that we have here in the state. Hell, we just had a three hour outage tonight.

makes you want to have wood heat backup, as even a gas heater uses electrics to function.

Ron Black wrote:

tens of millions of dollars are spend each year in repairing electric power lines and poles ... my question is why don't people along with their power companys
replace these lines with underground systems instead of those out of date poles which are highly unreliable ..so much money could be saved in the long run.

Each of those little wires you see on the poles can carry up to 34,000 volts. You would need a shielded cable 10 feet in diameter to carry the same amount of power. You want to pay for digging a ditch big enough to hold 3 cables, each 10 feet in diameter? And, have you ever tried to dig a ditch in rock? That's all you see in that part of the state.

Look on the bright side of it; 6 hours of no electricity to - oh, I don't know, let say 100,000 homes is making a huge impact on the eniviroment.

Ron Black wrote:

tens of millions of dollars are spend each year in repairing electric power lines and poles ... my question is why don't people along with their power companys
replace these lines with underground systems instead of those out of date poles which are highly unreliable ..so much money could be saved in the long run.

At least with the lines out in the open you can see where the problems are.

I can't beleive some of you who sit around and wait for someone to come help you. Have you ever heard of gen sets? We prepared for several years buying propane tanks, we have two 500 gal. tanks, and several large gen sets that power our house, well, shop and whatever needs to be. Yep, fireplace and wood stove, lots of food, stocked up on hay, dog and duck food. Instead of using all your energy whining, go figure out what you need to survive, or move back to Rio Rancho where you'll have someone to take care of you.