Month: February 2011

El Paso Electric?s local generation system continues to recover, according to company officials. El Paso Electric currently has five of its eight local generation units back up and providing power to the system in addition to our remote generation which has been operating during the entire event. The rolling outages stopped shortly after noon on

After the apologies and explanations from El Paso Electric in a news conference, many are still wondering, what’s the hold up? Why exactly has it taken El Paso Electric so long to fix the problems with the rolling outages? El Paso Electric owns two plants with eight generators. A spokeswoman told ABC-7 at this time

El Paso Electric?s power generating plants have regained some of their generating capacity thanks to Friday?s warmer weather. It was not immediately clear how much local generating capacity had been regained. EPE is continuing to stabilize its electrical system with local generation. EPE continues to urge customers to minimize or curtail their electric usage. EPE

Nearly 150 east El Paso residents got an early wake-up call Saturday morning after being evacuated because a 4-inch gas line ruptured. It happened near the 7800 block of Gateway East. El Paso Fire crews said they slowed the flow of gas to avoid major problems. “We have a hospital next door. We want to

UTEP went into Houston and defeated Rice 59-53. The Miners’ record is now 18-5, 6-2 C-USA. UTEP senior point guard Julyan Stone just missed out on a double-double with 23 points and nine rebounds. He also had two assists, three steals and two blocks.

El Paso Electric started its third day of rolling blackouts with them resuming at 6:30 a.m. Friday. El Paso Electric, which lost local power at its two power plants, is operating on power from out of town. El Paso Electric is asking customers to please be patient during these outages. If the outage lasts longer

At the request of El Paso Electric (EPE), El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU) has been participating in rolling blackouts in order to conserve electricity. As a result, several main breaks have occurred overnight and several reservoirs are dangerously low. This can result in loss of water or low water pressure citywide. We are urging customers

El Paso Water Utilities on Friday morning recommended its customers boil water before drinking it after water outages and low pressure throughout the city. The boil alert is just the latest obstacle El Pasoans have had to deal with since a winter snowstorm hit the Sun City earlier in the week. On Thursday night, thousands

El Paso County sheriff’s Investigators have identified the man found dead in a desert arroyo in January as Howard James Paul, 76. Authorities said he was born in Konawa, Okla. Paul’s exact cause of death is still unknown and officials said autopsy results were pending. At 9:25 a.m. on Jan. 26, Paul’s body was found

The University of Texas at El Paso will open on Saturday, February 5, for regularly schedule Saturday academic classes only. P3 Continuing Education classes are canceled. According to university officials, as part of a regional energy conservation effort, all classes taught on Saturday, Feb. 5, will be moved to three campus building locations: Biological Sciences

El Paso police officials have identified the man stabbed to death at the end of January as Joseph Anthony Powell, 22. According to authorities, Clarence Roper, 50, has been charged with murder in connection to the death and was booked into the El Paso County Jail, with bail set at $250, 000. Police said officers

Have Thursday off? Here are some time wasters to check out to help pass the time after you’ve finished watching ESPN Sports Center for the 10th time of the day. Find new music and movies through interactive maps built around your current favorites at www.liveplasma.com Morph any photo at www.befunky.com Hilarious uses of English, Bad

The Red Cross offers these tips and checklists for surviving a power outage, including rolling blackouts: Click here for how to be prepared.

Another day of frigid temps brought with it more rolling blackouts and more anger on Friday. Based on the e-mails and phone calls ABC-7 has received, much of that anger is aimed at El Paso Electric. Officials with the electric company gave a news conference Friday afternoon to update residents on the generators and those

ABC-7 didn’t just seek out answers from the electric company, but also from El Paso’s water utilities. Frozen pipes or burst lines have left many without water to flush their toilets or take showers in days. No one has been safe from the series of water and power outages, even the ABC-7 office building didn’t

Frozen or busted pipes aren’t just a home issue, but also a problem at city buildings. El Paso police headquarters and even City Hall ran into flooding problems on Friday. Police headquarters on Raynor Street was first to run into water problems. A water line burst at about 1:30 p.m. Friday. Police spokesman Mike Baranyay

Electricity and natural gas aren’t the only things on short supply during this winter blast in the borderland. United Blood Services officials said their blood donation supply is severely depleted. UBS canceled citywide blood drives on Wednesday and Thursday, when the snow and below-freezing temperatures crippled El Paso. Even though the offices were open, hardly

El Paso police investigators have identified the victim in Wednesday night’s shooting at the Mesa Inn as Jose Martin Salas, 20. Officials said Salas was inside a room with someone else at the motel showing that person a stolen handgun when the gun went off and hit the victim in the right arm and upper

Many school districts and offices in the borderland will remain closed Friday, at the request of the El Paso City-County Emergency Management Center. Some others, including the City of El Paso and Fort Bliss will reopen. It will be third consecutive day schools have shut down. They first did so on Wednesday because of weather,

In addition to the resumption of RoadRUNNER Transit, Dial-a-Ride and residential and commercial solid waste service, Branigan Library, 200 E. Picacho, and the Museum of Natural History in Mesilla Valley Mall next to JC Penney, will be open this weekend. Library hours will be 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 – 5 p.m.

El Paso Electric is asking customers in Dona Ana County to conserve electricity today to help avoid rolling blackouts during high peak 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., a City of Las Cruces spokesman said. EPE will spend today assessing their power generation and transmission capabilities and will decide later this afternoon whether they will request that government

Sun Metro’s fixed-route service and LIFT, paratransit service, are running a regular schedule with sporadic delays caused by road conditions. As always, Sun Metro passengers are asked to please have patience as drivers work through the icy conditions. The public is asked to please be courteous to Sun Metro buses and fellow commuters to help

Public Service Company of New Mexico is urging customers in the Alamogordo, Tularosa and Ruidoso areas to cut back electricity use because a transmission line serving those areas was exceeding its capacity Thursday morning. PNM says the overload occurred because a second line for the area has problems and was out of service. PNM is

Garbage collection in El Paso will take place today. Blue or recycling containers are not being emptied today, according to city officials. Areas where trucks cannot access due to ice will be serviced on Saturday.

Thursday, many people are left with the aftermath of Wednesday’s freezing temps…now dealing with frozen and busted pipes. So, what do you do? Unfortunately, many El Pasoans dealing with no water are directing their frustrations in the wrong place, El Paso Water utility. And getting an automated message telling them to be patient is not

Due to the inclement weather, El Paso Electric lost generation from the Rio Grande and Newman Power plants Wednesday and they’re still down this morning, according to an EPE spokeswoman. El Paso Electric is still operating under an emergency situation and is asking all customers, business and residential, to immediately curtail as much electrical usage

Although crews with both the city of El Paso and the Texas Department of Transportation spent most of the day Wednesday and overnight into Thursday spreading salt and sand on I-10 and U.S. 54, there are still side streets that have patches of black ice. Ice and snow collecting on roadways slightly melted and turned

EL PASO, Texas — Rolling outages will resume in El Paso and Dona Ana County Thursday night. Officials with El Paso Electric say they’ll run from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm, for up to an hour at a time. The blackouts started Wednesday, after snow and freezing temps from a winter storm. El Paso Electric

A lot of El Paso’s big stores and restaurants were back in business Thursday. But given the borderland’s current utility problems as a result of the winter blast, should they have opened their doors in the first place? Some El Paso leaders, including County Judge Veronica Escobar, were hoping businesses would do a little more