Snow, Power Outages Plague Catron County

Mountain Mail Reports

Last week’s winter storm packed a wallop in Catron County that most residents won’t soon forget.
Quemado and surrounding areas were buried under two and one-half feet of snow. Areas around Armijo Springs Campground, had power outages for more than 30 hours and some phone disruption on Saturday.
“We did experience several outages in Catron County due to icing and snow build on the power lines of Friday,” said Richard Lopez, the engineering and operations manager for the Socorro Electric Cooperative. “We had outages in Alamo, Quemado, Mangus and Adobe Ranch/Beaverhead area. Crews were out late Friday restoring service to all but a hand full of customers who were restored Saturday morning. There was up to 2 feet of snow in some places.
“Our crews were having problems driving in those weather conditions and after several vehicles were stuck in snow and mud we proceeded to patrol line on foot in the snow. We had six crews working until all consumers were restored.”
It was much worse in Reserve, where electric power was down from 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, to Sunday, Jan. 24 at 4:15 p.m.
David Plumb, a Navopache Electric Cooperative spokesperson, said a radial transmission line broke, putting about 3,000 meters out of power. This 69,000 volt line broke in two places, causing widespread electrical outages to Eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico.
“System wide at the height of the outage, approximately 10,000 consumers were without electricity,” he said.
For the first time in recent
history, Navopache used a helicopter to identify the breaks in the line. A crew would work 16 hours straight. As one crew rested, another would take its place.
“The biggest problem they faced was snow drifts in excess of eight feet,” Plumb said. More than 46 employees in the Operations Department worked night and day to fix the problem. Up to six administrative employees manned the telephone lines during this emergency to update consumers.
“A generator was considered as a stop-gap solution, but this was not necessary as repairs were holding,” Plumb said.
“The phone calls we have received late Sunday and Monday were of congratulations. Many thanks to everyone for helping us through this situation,” Plumb said.
Reserve residents, meanwhile, did the best they could to deal with the situation.
Snow was over a foot in most places, with daytime temperature hovering around high 30s to lows in the teens after dark. The grocery store, gas stations, bank, and eateries were closed except Ella’s Café.
The post office remained open, even though it had no heat. Black Gold, a grocery/gas station, brought in a generator Sunday afternoon to pump gas. Except for ice cream, stores did not report losing meats or dairy or other food products.
Village of Reserve residents did have water, but residents surrounding the village melted snow for water.
For three days, the hum of generators could be heard throughout the Reserve area.
Neighbors hauled generators between houses for three hour periods, keeping foodstuff cold.
Those without generators placed refrigerator items in the snow. Car batteries with inverters powered computers, pellet stoves and other electrical items.
Camping items normally used in the forest were common items in the house. Flashlights, butane heaters and lights, kerosene stoves all were utilized.
As one resident said: “The only thing missing in my house is the pup tent.”
The County Courthouse, powered by a generator, served as a haven for those in need. “We opened the doors for anyone who needed a place to stay warm,” said county manager Bill Aymar. In addition, Hometown Oxygen, out of Silver City, left extra tanks at the courthouse in case any consumer needed special attention during this period.
In Quemado, storms hit the area with snow, sleet and ice. Residents reported flickering and brownouts on Friday but no total outages.
Snowfall was around eight inches on Thursday with about four inches each of the next two nights. Saturday’s basketball game against Mountainair and the homecoming festivities were canceled.
The Quemado Lake area received a little over a foot and a half of snow, and power was out for around 15 hours. Besides having to shovel off decks all weekend, several of the residents were concerned about the trees breaking from the heavy accumulation of snow and ice on the branches.
Not all fretted the weather this weekend. An area near the Quemado landfill became a playground where children and adults were sledding and driving 4x4's.
Debbie Leschner, Richard Torres and John Severance contributed to this story.

Photo: Snow, wind buffet the area around Armijo Campground in Catron County.
Photo by Debbie Leschner.

Snow, Power Outages Plague Catron County