Rolling Blackouts Mean No Heat For Some; City, County Open Warming Shelters

After work declared a snow day, Shannon Osborne thought she’d spend the day relaxing at home.

Her nice, soothing day at home soon turned into a challenge just to stay warm.

One of the El Paso Electric Company’s rolling blackouts hit her home and she tried to tough it out, suffering through 20 degree temperatures in her apartment for several hours.

“I’m curling up in my bed and I have four layers of clothing and covers on,” said Osborne, who was dressed more for a game at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin than for reading in her apartment. “It’s freezing.”

Osborne found other living accommodations for Wednesday night to warm up.

One man was not able to survive the cold and Tuesday night’s storm claimed the life of a homeless man in the Lower Valley. Fire officials said he was found by a passerby on Alameda. It’s that type of death that city officials want to prevent from happening tonight.

The El Paso Convention Center, as well as the El Paso County Sheriff?s Office Academy in East El Paso will serve as a temporary emergency shelters for residents seeking relief from the frigid temperatures.

The shelter at the convention center opened Wednesday afternoon and is available for use to all residents, including those whose homes are experiencing power outages. It will be opened until further notice. The American Red Cross and convention center employees are assisting with the shelter operations and have set up more than 100 cots with sheets and blankets for people staying overnight. Officials said they will provide breakfast, lunch and dinner and are prepared to accommodate people for about two days.

Several dozen people arrived Wednesday afternoon at the convention center seeking a warm place to spend the night.

Some are borderland residents, while others were traveling through the Sun City on Greyhound buses. Many of those travelers were not exactly prepared for the freezing temperatures with several not dressed for the weather, one man even wearing flip flops.

One man said he was just happy to have a warm place to stay Wednesday night.

Jonathan Sherwood, who was traveling on a Greyhound bus, said he’s used to staying in shelters.

“I’ve done this before when I was in the Army,” he said. “We’ve been in shelters waiting in cots and stuff. It’s actually better to sleep in a shelter instead of sleeping in the field.”

The shelter at the Sheriff?s Academy gymnasium, at 12501 Montana, opened at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The American Red Cross is also providing assistance at this shelter.

Anyone needing transportation assistance to and from the convention center or the Sheriff?s Academy gymnasium should call 2-1-1. For more information about the shelters, the public should also call 2-1-1.

El Paso Electric has asked all customers in El Paso to immediately curtail as much electrical usage as they can. El Paso Electric has lost all generation at the Rio Grande and Newman power plants, leading the company to institute rolling blackouts throughout the city on Wednesday. Right now, El Paso Electric is receiving power from it’s Palo Verde plant in Arizona.

Blackouts were lasting between 30 minutes and two hours on Wednesday and the electric company notified the Doa Ana County Emergency Operations Center in nearby Las Cruces of planned, rolling blackouts of one-hour durations across the grid to conserve power.

The low temperature for Wednesday morning dropped to 7 degrees and left highways and street surfaces with a dusting of snow and some black ice. Dozens of traffic accidents were reported overnight Tuesday. All major school districts closed for the day.

The City of El Paso has also instituted a voluntary 10 p.m. curfew for Wednesday night.

ABC-7 Reporter Veronique Masterson contributed to this report