ESPAÑOLA, NM – While PNM is still working to power its customers, another company in our state is trying to do the same.

Jemez Co-Op serves part of northern New Mexico, including Española. Some have been without power since the snow started falling.

“We are doing our best. We just do a lot. It’s hard work for these guys to operate in the cold, and they do it,” said Joseph Sanchez, general manager of Jemez Co-Op Electric.

Sanchez says they are doing what they can to restore power. There are still thousands of customers without power Friday evening in the Española Valley.

Sanchez says they expected outages from this storm, but not to this magnitude.

“But because of the nature of these early, heavy, wet snowstorms and then leaves off the trees, they’re usually the worst for utilities. They cause more problems than a general snowstorm later in the season,” Sanchez said.

Española city councilor Sam Ledoux is also deprived of power.

“The power cuts started on Wednesday evening. Some people said it started around 1am. Personally, the power outage started around 5 a.m. and it seemed to be at different times, depending on where people were on the grid and what circuit they were connected to,” Ledoux said .

He says the worry isn’t just about staying in the dark.

“There was a lot of concern about food spoilage. There was a lot of concern about people having medications that needed to be refrigerated. Myself, you know, I went to my parents’ house because I had some medicine that needed to be refrigerated, and I took it to my parents’ house in Nambe, and our electricity was cut off here again.” , said Ledoux.

Jemez Co-Op had crews in one of the hardest hit areas, Zia Estates.

Ledoux says the city has also opened up some warming zones and he hopes to get more.

“We partnered with the county to open the Lucero Center on the west side as a heating center, and it was open overnight to anyone who needed it, who needed heat. So we were happy to be able to do that. We also opened the senior center near Española Elementary School for people who needed warmth during the day. I hope that if these outages continue, we can find ways to open more warming centers,” Ledoux said.

As for restoring power, the cooperative’s goal was to do so by Friday evening, and eventually get people reimbursed for what they lost.

“When this is over, we will assess these losses with our insurance. And people are free to make claims, and we pretty much leave it up to our insurance to decide how that’s handled. So we submit these claims to them,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez says he doesn’t take this situation lightly.

“It’s not even just refrigerators and freezers. Some people are on oxygen. Other people have devices that they use to help them sleep. So there are a lot of major problems that depend on electricity. So these outages are a big problem. So it’s life threatening,” Sanchez said.