EPE says power back for most of 17,000 impacted by storm

EL PASO, Texas -- About 17,000 El Paso Electric customers across the region lost power Sunday night after a powerful storm with tornado-like winds swept through the Borderland. By Monday afternoon, the number of people without power had dropped to under 800.

Those outages were caused by multiple problems, the utility company said, but most involved flying debris, downed power lines, and trees falling into lines and equipment.

EPE asked their customers to keep an eye on trees around power lines on their property so that they can be trimmed. The utility said it will even come out and trim those trees for customers in an effort to avoid power outages.

"Anytime that we can take the step to do some preventative maintenance like tree-trimming, it's an opportunity worth pursuing," explained EPE spokesman Javier Camacho. "Particularly during storms like we saw last night, if a power outage was caused by a downed tree or branch, those are outages that we can avoid. And our customers are our eyes out in the community."

The utility advised that if a tree on your property is within 10 feet of any electrical lines or poles, you should not try to trim the tree yourself. Instead, let EPE crews do it, which the company pointed out is free of charge.

In addition, officials said if people see a downed tree on a power line they should avoid it and call EPE right away because tree branches and trunks can conduct electricity and are dangerous.