Viewer Notices El Paso Electric Flying Texas Flag Upside Down
An ABC-7 viewer wants to know why some Texas flags are flying upside down.
In an email to the station they wrote, “why do so many companies in El Paso fly the Texas flag upside down? I’ve seen the El Paso Electric Company, UTEP’s College of Nursing building, El Paso Police Pebble Hills substation, El Paso fire department near Mesa Street and the state of Texas building.”
There’s very specific etiquette when displaying and folding the Texas flag.
The blue part of the flag should be against the flag pole and the white stripe should be at the top, except in a life and death emergency.
If it’s hanging upside down — with the red side up — that means it’s a distressed symbol, meaning mortal danger.
ABC-7 toured the areas the viewer mentioned to see if any flags were displayed incorrectly.
We found that El Paso Electric Company was incorrectly displaying the flag. When the company was notified of the issue, they quickly righted the situation.
El Paso Electric’s spokesman, Henry Quintana, sent this statement:
“El Paso Electric sincerely apologizes for not correctly displaying the Texas flag at its Stanton Tower location. Those in charge of hoisting both the Texas flag and the American flag have been instructed to ensure that both flags are displayed correctly.”
El Paso Electric went on to thank the ABC-7 viewer who noticed the error.
