4,000 including ABC-7 lose power in storms; Las Cruces hard hit

EL PASO, Texas — Around 4,000 El Paso Electric customers lost power Friday evening amidst severe thunderstorms rolling through the region.

ABC-7’s studios in west El Paso were among those business and homes that lost power. As a result, KVIA was off the air for time on Friday night until a backup generator could kick-in; most notably, the ABC-7 at 6 newscast wasn't broadcast.

The scattered power outages in the region on Friday night spanned from west El Paso up along I-10 through Anthony and onward to Las Cruces, which utility officials said was the top area impacted.

An EPE spokesman said high winds were the likely cause of many of the outages.

The number of outages were down to 1,700 as of 11 p.m. Friday and EPE tweeted that crews worked overnight into Saturday morning "to restore power as quickly and safely as possible."

The company's outage map still reflected a few scattered outages totaling 72 customers as of early Saturday afternoon.