By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper. — East Mountain residents stuck in a stubborn power outage now have somewhere to plug in. Bernalillo County opened Los Vecinos Community Center in Tijeras to anyone who needs to charge a phone, clean up or simply get out of a dark house.
The outage shut down Vista Grande Community Center until further notice, county officials announced Monday. It also disrupted Whispering Pines Senior Center, but seniors can still pick up grab-and-go lunches there.
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About 8,700 PNM customers remained without power Monday morning after a severe storm Sunday night, and crews aimed to restore service by Monday afternoon.
The blackout also benched East Mountain students. Albuquerque Public Schools canceled Monday classes at A. Montoya Elementary, San Antonito Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School, along with East Mountain students who attend Manzano High School.
County staff will post facility updates at bernco.gov as conditions change. In the meantime, officials urge residents to turn off and unplug appliances, including stoves, and keep refrigerator and freezer doors shut to save food. Leave one light on — it doubles as your “we’re back” alarm. Use flashlights or flameless LED candles for light, and never run a generator inside a home or garage.
Need a place to recharge?
- Los Vecinos Community Center: 478 NM-333, Tijeras.
- Senior lunches: Grab-and-go service continues at Whispering Pines Senior Center.
- County facility updates: bernco.gov
- Outage map and restoration estimates: outagemap.pnm.com