By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Forecasters for the National Weather Service had only forecast a 30% chance of rain in Northeastern New Mexico, something that doesn’t raise much concern, however conditions were right for the area south of Raton where storms converged and rain fell and fell in torrents.
A local rancher that lives in the area near the damage told Colfax County Sheriff Deputy Clay Moore that there were very strong winds in the area when the power went out.
According to a forecaster in the NWS Albuquerque office those storms converged and dropped well over an inch of rain along with pea and marble size hail. He suspected that the storms developed a wet microburst wind. That is a very strong downdraft wind that spread out and is probably what downed the power poles about a mile west of Maxwell on State Highway 505 and left the highway blocked for about an hour. Hail lined the road where the grass stopped it as it ran off the highway and water was everywhere. If it was a low spot it had standing or running water in it all the way down from the three mile bridge on I-25 to past Maxwell.
According to Ron Brashear with Springer Electric they lost four 3-phase distribution power poles that run along the north side of highway 505 and one 60 foot 69 KV pole on the south side of the highway that feeds Cimarron. The downed poles interrupted power to Springer Electric customers north of Maxwell including our own KRTN transmitter on Eagle Tail mountain as well as Cimarron and the Raton area. The lines also feed east of Raton to Capulin Mountain and Folsom. Brashear indicated that their first priority was to get the 69 KV line back on so they could get power back to Cimarron and Raton area customers as soon as possible. The repairs were complicated by the amount of rain that fell making the bar ditches and pastures very muddy that the crews had to work in to repair the lines.
