BULLET RIDDLED POLE SUCCUMBS DURING HIGH WINDS--CUSTOMERS WITHOUT POWER SEVERAL HOURS
by Lance Adkins
The headlines above are intended to inject some humor into what was definitely not a humorous situation. High winds in the first few weeks of April caused outages in several areas of Farmers' Electric Cooperative's system, as well as outages for other utilities all across eastern New Mexico and West Texas. April 6 produced the most widespread damage at Farmers' Electric, with a total of ten poles broken. While most of the poles were broken at points where several knots were in close proximity, one pole west of Clovis went down as a result of vandalism.
Crews in the Clovis area were busy replacing two poles some twenty-five miles northeast of Clovis when around 5:00 pm we began receiving outage calls from west of Clovis. The source of the outage was found relatively quickly, a pole was down on the main feeder circuit, serving consumers south and west of the Ranchvale community. While the majority of the consumers affected by the outage had power restored relatively quickly, by back feeding some of the line, a significant number of consumers were without power until the pole and several cross-arms on adjacent poles could be replaced. These folks were without power for about five hours.
As crews returned to the site later, to clean up any mess remaining and inspect other poles in close proximity for damage, they noted the broken pole had been shot numerous times. It appears someone hung a target on the pole and honed their marksmanship skills using a high-power rifle. Three large caliber slugs were recovered from the broken area of the pole, with the slugs having penetrated some five inches into the pole. This damage weakened the pole to less than half its natural strength, and with winds clocked in excess of eighty miles per hour the pole failed. Fortunately, no one was injured in this incident, and no livestock was lost nor grass fire started.
East of Tucumcari we were not as fortunate, as a downed pole remained energized and two curious calves were electrocuted and a small grass fire started. Fortunately, the remainder of the herd stayed away from the line and the grass fire was limited in size due in part to the moisture the area had received over the winter months.
Farmers' Electric has a program in place whereby poles are individually inspected for weakness and treated to prevent decay, and is designed to treat every pole over a ten to fifteen year cycle. Most electric utilities have some sort of periodic inspection and maintenance program. Even with a maintenance program in place, some poles are going to be damaged in snow/ice storms, lightning, and high wind conditions we experience each year, and pole failures will occur.
Safety for the public and their property is a priority for Farmers' Electric, just as it should be for any electric utility. We ask that you use extreme care to stay away from any downed pole or wire and report any damage to the appropriate utility just a soon as you can. If you see something amiss after normal business hours or on the weekend, please do not hesitate to call your utility, employees are on call 24 hrs each day, 365 days each year. If you see someone vandalizing electrical equipment we ask that you report the activity to local law enforcement officials and to the appropriate utility. Please do not approach or confront these individuals yourself, your life and well-being are far more valuable than any loss of equipment.
Lance Adkins is the General Manager of Farmers' Electric Cooperative in Clovis, New Mexico, providing electrical service to approximately 10,500 meters in New Mexico.
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