Lightning causes power outage, shelter in place for multiple schools

Leah Romero, Las Cruces Sun-News
·1 min read

LAS CRUCES – Nearly 500 El Paso Electric customers in Las Cruces lost power Tuesday afternoon after lightning struck equipment on the East Mesa.

George De La Torre, spokesperson for EPE, said a thunderstorm passed through the area Tuesday and power was lost. It was first reported at about 12:15 p.m. Over 480 customers were impacted. However, crews restored power by 1 p.m., leaving households, businesses and schools without power for about 45 minutes.

For safety from the lightning, multiple Las Cruces Public Schools were placed under shelter-in-place this afternoon. As of 4:15 p.m. Tuesday the following schools remain under the shelter order, according to LCPS:

  • Alameda Elementary

  • Centennial High

  • Conlee Elementary

  • Fairacres Elementary

  • Las Cruces High

  • Loma Heights Elementary

  • Lynn Middle

  • Picacho Middle

  • Sonoma Elementary

  • Tombaugh Elementary

  • Zia Middle

LCPS updates can be found online at www.lcps.net/live-feed.

A separate power outage was reported at about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday north of Anthony impacting 1,616 customers. De La Torre said the outage was caused by a downed tree on a power line during storms in the area. After removing branches, the line was reenergized and power was restored just before 3:40 p.m.

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Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Lightning causes power outage, shelter in place for multiple schools