Albuquerque Public Schools canceled in-person classes Monday at three East Mountain schools after a power outage knocked out electricity to thousands of customers in the area. A. Montoya Elementary, San Antonito Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School were all affected, leaving families scrambling to adjust their Monday morning routines.
APS said in an alert that “school is canceled for all students attending East Mountain Schools on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 due to a power outage,” according to Albuquerque Public Schools. The district confirmed that students at A. Montoya Elementary, San Antonito Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School had no in-person classes, a detail also reported by the Albuquerque Journal, which noted there was no school Monday for students at those three campuses. The disruption was first detailed by KOB 4, which tied the closures directly to the outage sweeping the East Mountains.
The closures didn't apply uniformly across the district. East Mountain students who attend Manzano High School were moved to asynchronous learning for the day, per the same APS alert, while Manzano students who live in Albuquerque proper were still required to show up to class as usual. Special education preschool classes and therapies were also called off, and Career Enrichment Center classes were canceled only for Manzano students — everyone else enrolled in CEC programming was expected to attend.
A Main Line Problem Behind the Blackout
The outage itself stemmed from trouble on a major power line serving a wide swath of the East Mountains. The cause was listed as a problem on a main power line serving multiple neighborhoods, the station notes that the issue affected areas over long distances. PNM's outage map, as reported, flagged nine separate outages tied to the same root cause.
Customer counts varied depending on the source. Telemundo Nuevo México reported that PNM's outage map showed nine outages affecting 8,483 customers, citing figures that “se reportan nueve apagones que afectan a 8,483 clientes.” The Albuquerque Journal, however, put the number higher, reporting that around 8,700 customers were still without power Monday morning. Hoodline could not independently confirm which figure was most current as of publication.
Estimates for when the lights would come back on also diverged between outlets. 96.3 KKOB reported that “PNM estimates power will be back around 8:30 Monday morning,” while KOAT reported a different window, stating that the estimated restoration time was 12:30 p.m. Monday. It remains unclear which estimate ultimately held, and Hoodline could not verify whether power had been restored by either projected time.
Outages Rippled Beyond the East Mountains
The East Mountains weren't an isolated case Monday. Power outages were reported across the broader Albuquerque metro, with the East Mountains identified as the hardest-hit area, according to KOAT. The outlet also reported that outages continued across New Mexico following severe weather and strong winds moving through the region.
For residents still waiting on restoration, PNM directed customers to text #OUT to 78766 to report an outage, a step KOAT highlighted for those trying to get updates on service in their neighborhood. With a main line implicated in the failure and conflicting estimates on both customer totals and restoration timing, East Mountain families were left watching PNM's outage map for updates as Monday wore on.
