(Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
By Duane Barbati, Alamogordo Daily News, N.M.
May 20--PNM is still trying to determine the cause of a power outage Tuesday morning after an estimated 31,205 customers in Alamogordo, Tularosa and Ruidoso lost electricity, a spokesman said.
Senior corporate communications representative Kevin Fuller said the outage started around 8:34 a.m., but all customers had power restored by 9:08 a.m.
"One of our 115-kilovolt lines tripped," Fuller said. "The cause is still unknown, but our transmission staff is investigating it. We're hoping the cause will be determined in a few days."
In Alamogordo and Tularosa, the power outage started at 8:34 a.m. with all power restored at 8:59 a.m. Ruidoso's power was turned back on at 9:08 a.m.
Fuller said Alamogordo had 17,546 customers without power, Tularosa had 1,733, and 11,926 in Ruidoso.
"Despite having a fairly big outage, we were able to restore most customers in all three cities in 30 minutes," Fuller said.
At Mountain View Middle School in Alamogordo, students had to be evacuated because of a fluorescent light short-out during the power failure.
"It happened shortly after the outage," APS safety coordinator Dole Syling said. "Our maintenance people had to go around the school to check refrigerators and other electrical equipment, too."
Alamogordo Department of Public Safety Sgt. David Black said the city had no major traffic accidents or incidents during the outage.
"We only had to direct traffic because of signals being out," Black said. "At every intersection with a traffic signal in the city, we had officers directing traffic."
Otero County Sheriff's Department Capt. Leon Ledbetter said the county had no incidents due to the power failure.
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