Downed electrical wires have shut down several streets in Canutillo, forcing drivers to find other ways around the area with no word on when the roads will reopen. Second, Third and Fourth streets are blocked at La Mesa Street while crews work to clear the hazard.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office closed the streets because of the downed wires, according to KFOX. The outlet reports that roads have no estimated time to reopen as of Tuesday, and drivers are urged to use caution and find an alternate route while the closures remain in place.
El Paso Electric crews are working to clear the scene, per the same report. The station notes that the utility's outage map showed 3,603 customers without power in the Canutillo area, though the scope of that figure applies specifically to the neighborhood affected by the downed lines.
A Wider Outage Picture Across El Paso Electric's Territory
Zooming out to the broader utility footprint, PowerOutage.us reported 34 homes and businesses without power across the entire El Paso Electric service area, or about 0.01% of the 483,601 customers the tracker monitors. That count reflects a different scope than the Canutillo-specific figure and shouldn't be read as an exact match to the local tally. PowerOutage.us also said El Paso County, Texas, currently has the most customers without power among the utility's listed service areas, with its statistics last updated 12 minutes before the page was viewed.
Severe weather has also strained the grid this month. On September 16, about 10,994 customers were without power across 55 outages as of 9:25 p.m., with KTSM attributing the outages to severe weather conditions, including lightning and torrential rainfall. El Paso Electric did not have an estimated restoration time for those outages at the time of that report. Whether that earlier event is connected to Tuesday's Canutillo wire incident has not been established.
For now, the message for anyone near Second, Third or Fourth streets in Canutillo is simple: expect delays, avoid the blocked stretch near La Mesa Street, and plan for an alternate route until crews finish clearing the downed wires.
