First snow of the season causes power outages across Taos (Taos News Wednesday, October 13, 2021)
Transformers exploded, trees smoldered and power to street lights, multiple businesses and even the phone lines at Taos Central Dispatch was lost Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 12) as rainy weather turned into the first snow of the season in Taos.
The first blown transformer was reported around 3 p.m. near the Laughing Horse Gallery, located on Paseo del Pueblo Norte a couple blocks north of Cid's. First responders reported that a tree was "smoldering," but said they couldn't take action to put it out until workers from Kit Carson Electric cut power to the lines in the area connected to the transformer.
"Most of the outages that we responded to are trees on lines," he said. "The trees still have a lot of leaves and with the heavy snow, the weight of heavy snow on leaves causes branches to come in contact with the power lines."