Thunderstorms sweeping across El Paso County, Texas left thousands of El Paso Electric customers without power, causing an immediate risk for residents who depend on electricity for essential services like air conditioning, refrigerated food, and medical equipment.
KFOX14/CBS4 reported that the heaviest outages were in East El Paso and the far eastern part of El Paso County.
Here's what to know
At 10:15 p.m., El Paso Electric's outage map showed 7,076 residents without power across multiple outages, a total KFOX14/CBS4 described as nearly 8,000 customers.
Restoration timing had not been announced at the time of this report, and El Paso Electric had not confirmed whether the thunderstorms were directly responsible. The utility's outage map showed most of the outages in East El Paso and the far eastern part of El Paso County.
Power losses can mean spoiled groceries, unusable appliances, dark homes, interrupted internet and phone charging, and dangerous conditions for anyone who depends on powered medical devices.
Repeated storm-related outages can cause an increase in El Paso Electric's reliability spending, which in turn affects its rates.
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More background
When the power goes out, it can be worse than inconvenient; it can be dangerous. Homes can heat up to unbelievable temperatures, food can go bad, and phones can die just when you need to get those emergency updates.
For families already living on tight budgets, even a short outage can be expensive. Replacing spoiled groceries, missing shifts at work, or having to stay outside the home can turn a storm into a money pit.
Reliable electricity is essential in places like El Paso where storms can move in quickly and summer temperatures can be punishing.
What can be done?
Residents can use the El Paso Electric outage map and local emergency alerts to keep track of outages and repair work. To make that possible, it's important to keep phones charged ahead of heavy weather.
You should also prepare with flashlights, extra batteries, shelf-stable food, needed medications, and coolers or ice packs during storm season. Households with medically necessary electric devices may also want a backup plan in case they need to leave home or find another power source.
With no clear timeline for restoration across the affected areas, thousands of customers were left monitoring updates from El Paso Electric and KFOX14/CBS4 while waiting out the storms' aftermath.
Where can I learn more?
Extreme weather knocks out power, strains utilities, and makes it hard to operate air conditioning and keep phones charged. The articles below look at how storms, heat, and flooding can make those disruptions even harder on communities with fewer resources or backup options.
• Across the United States, extreme heat and storms are driving longer outages in socially vulnerable communities.
• Across Texas, people losing power during punishing heat have offered a warning about future summers.
• Also in Texas, things can go south very quickly when flooding tears through farms and roads.
• In Washington state, tens of thousands without power left crews struggling to reach damaged lines.
• In Texas' Kerr County, flash flood waters swamped homes and stranded residents awaiting rescue.
Even one night without power can raise bigger questions about grid reliability, emergency planning, and who is hit hardest when service fails. That broader context helps explain why restoration timelines matter so much for El Paso residents.
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