After a high wind warning went into effect earlier today, PNM has announced that it won’t be necessary to activate a Public Safety Power Shutoff in the Santa Fe area after all.
Earlier in the day, when there were forecasts of 70 mile an hour gusts, the electrical utility, concerned about the potential for wildfire, told residents that there could be outages.
In a call with KSFR this morning, Santa Fe mayor Alan Webber explained the situation.
"We've had a very dry winter, so there's a lot of concern over just what the fire danger level is from dryness," Webber said.
"Then you add winds that are potentially 50 miles an hour. You add electrical wires potentially going down and that combination has PNM very concerned.
According to PNM the power outages could have potentially affected 35 thousand customers in the Santa Fe area and the Pueblo of Cochiti.
In the end, the day’s weather, instead of an actual emergency, provided a test run for municipal workers and emergency responders, should things go differently the next time.
Mayor Webber said that city officials met with state cabinet secretaries yesterday to strategize ways of ensuring that the city’s most vulnerable are safe.
They discussed several plans, including whether an additional shelter might be needed, the possibility of emergency transport, and ways to keep power on for people relying on electrical medical devices and systems.
"Could we get a transport organized for folks to be carried to safe locations?" said Webber.
"And then most importantly, we were looking at generators so that, if the power went down in certain locations, and it may not be citywide, it may be very targeted and focused, that there would emergency generators that could keep the power up.”
Forecasters with the National Interagency Fire Center, say that, for March, an above normal significant fire potential is in play from southeast Arizona into southern and eastern New Mexico and into much of Texas and Oklahoma.
