Strong winds, the like not ever felt before, ripped through Southern Colorado, on Monday, January 9th causing power outages, overturning big rig trucks, railroad cars, trees and snapping utility poles, shattering windows and ripping roofs off.
Most of the damage was done in El Paso County Colorado, but the ripple effect of trees falling into power lines and power poles snapping, left thousands of residents in the dark, including in Raton and Trinidad after Tri-State Electric suffered the damage. RPS customers in Raton were without power for most of the six hours from 2 till 8 pm. RPS requested to be switched over to the southern leg of Tri-State coming in from Springer electric Coop and authorization was given with the switchover happening a little past eight pm.
The winds reportedly turned over some 16 tractor-trailer rigs between Monument Hill and Trinidad and a 70 car coal train was blown over near Ludlow.
Robert Walton, RPS General Manager told KRTN that the switchover back to the north for Burro Canyon Line was set for 4 pm on Tuesday.
