Parts of Albuquerque and the UNM community got a taste of California’s power woes when a blackout that lasted about two hours hit the city Tuesday morning.
Parts of the city, including the airport and UNM, were without power from about 9-11 a.m.
Julie McCabe, a spokeswoman with the Public Service Company of New Mexico, said a backhoe snapped a power pole support wire and the wire struck a transmission line. She said the accident occurred on the southeastern portion of Eubank Boulevard, affecting 10 substations and about 32,000 PNM customers in the northeast, southeast and southwest parts of the city.
The power went out about 8:50 a.m. and was restored to most places by 9:25 a.m., she said.
However, some businesses and residents were left in the dark for more than three hours.
Though the Albuquerque International Sunport was without power, no morning flights were delayed. University of New Mexico Hospital and other hospitals in the area switched to emergency power and were not accepting new patients.
UNM Physical Plant director Mary Vosevich said that power was out on campus for about an hour.
Frank Martinez, director of UNM Public Affairs, said he was not aware whether any classes were cancelled because of the outage. He added that Provost Brian Foster said he did not plan to cancel any classes.
