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LIGHTS BACK ON FOR TNMP CUSTOMERS AFFECTED BY
HURRICANE RITA FORT WORTH, Texas — Sept. 28,
2005 — Just three days after Hurricane Rita stormed through the Gulf Coast,
more than 25,000 Texas-New Mexico Power Co. customers had their electric
service completely restored.
All reported power outages in Texas-New Mexico Power Company’s Gulf Coast
service area were restored by Tuesday evening following the Saturday storm.
Outage reports may continue to trickle in as customers return home.
Initial estimates suggested approximately 20,000 TNMP customers were
affected by Rita. That number increased as customers returned home and
reported additional outages. While outages were reported in Friendswood,
Alvin, Angleton, West Columbia and League City, the communities that were
hit hardest were Texas City, La Marque and Dickinson.
Restoration was complete to more than 90 percent of affected customers
within 48 hours. In addition to Gulf Coast personnel, who began working to
restore service Saturday, TNMP brought in 150 more employees and contract
workers to restore service.
“We appreciate our customers’ patience with this effort, and are pleased
that we were able to get our service back on a full day earlier than
projected,” said Doug Hobbs, TNMP president and CEO. “Employees from
throughout our company worked virtually around the clock since early
Saturday to make this happen.”
TNMP crews will continue to focus on cleanup — replacing utility poles and
trimming storm-damaged trees that might affect service — in addition to
working any new outage calls that come in.
Several TNMP crewmen who worked long hours to ensure power restoration
occurred as quickly and safely as possible had just returned from
Mississippi, where they worked with Mississippi Power crews to restore power
from damage due to Hurricane Katrina. Many of these same TNMP workers are
now readying to assist in Beaumont, where power restoration is anticipated
to take several weeks to complete.
Texas-New Mexico Power Co. is a wholly owned subsidiary of PNM Resources
(NYSE: PNM), an energy holding company headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M.
TNMP provides transmission and distribution services in Texas to 209,000
customers and electricity to 49,000 customers in New Mexico.
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