High winds cause Milan power outage

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

MILAN — Gusting winds created a power outage Tuesday morning by lifting a metal shed into the air and hurling it into a power line.

Milan Police Chief Jerry Stephens said the incident occurred at 305 South St., behind Allsup's convenience store.

Milan police received no emergency calls for assistance related to the outage, he said.

Mac Juarez, spokesman for Continental Divide Electric Cooperative Inc., said power was knocked out a few minutes before 10 a.m. and was restored by noon.

Winds started gusting at exactly the time when the incident occurred, said Timothy Shy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.

"Sustained winds of 36 mph gusted to 59 mph at 9:53 a.m.," he said. Weather statistics are reported to the National Weather Service by an instrument station located at the Grants-Milan Municipal Airport.

High winds and gusts lasted throughout the day on Tuesday and the outlook for the next few days calls for continued winds in addition to isolated thunderstorms, rain and possibly snow, Shy said.

The outage affected 175 business and residential customers from C&E Concrete to where the New Mexico State Department of Transportation facilities are located, south of Route 66, mostly on the east side of Milan, Juarez said.

A two-man crew had to inspect the power lines from where the shed struck the lines, all the way to the DOT facilities.

The cooperative has a set of power breakers at the DOT area and the crew had to determine there was no damage or frayed lines and that restoring power would be safe for the cooperative's customers, Juarez said.

"This incident is a perfect reminder for consumers to think about emergency supplies to have on hand for the rest of the spring and summer, as we enter a period of windy and rainy weather," Juarez said.

"We'll do our part to try to communicate what is going on, what caused the outage and what we had to do to restore power as safely as we can," he said.

Shy said winds will continue today, peaking between 2-7 p.m., again with gusts as high as 50 mph.

On Thursday, isolated thunderstorms will hit the Grants-Milan area, bringing more wind gusts and rain, Shy said.

On Friday, another storm will bring possible snow showers and the temperatures will take a hard dip to freezing or below freezing, Shy said.

By Saturday, the temperatures should rebound 10 degrees and reach a high in the middle 40s for the day, clearing and bringing sunshine, just in time for the weekend, Shy said.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.