Storm causes outages, flooding

A severe thunderstorm system that parked itself over the Tucumcari area on Saturday evening for several hours caused power outages, flooding and property damage that included a wind gust ripping the roof from a Mesalands Dinosaur Museum storage building.

High winds peeled off a metal roof from the building on Adams Street and deposited it into a nearby alley.

Loni Monahan, curator of the museum, said Saturday night some fossils were stored in the building but was unsure what else was in there.

Joshua McVey, public relations officer for Mesalands Community College that operates the museum, stated in a text Monday: "We continue to recover the contents, relocating to a new location and inventorying. We won't have details regarding what is missing until those are complete."

Thomas Winick, who lives near the museum, said he heard the roof being ripped away and noticed circular-type winds just before it occurred.

Winick speculated it could have been a small tornado, but that wasn't confirmed by city or county law enforcement. Another weather phenomenon that can cause such damage are microbursts, capable of gusts of up to 150 mph.

A man who lived in the neighborhood also was taken away by ambulance. An EMT at the scene said he had suffered a storm-related injury. Winick said the man had complained of shoulder pain.

Mesalands Community College evacuated its Stampede Village student housing complex Saturday night and temporarily moved students to alternate housing because of a power outage. The college used the Pow Wow Inn's restaurant as a staging area.

The Tucumcari Police Department in a social-media post Saturday evening stated it had received reports of downed power lines, roof damage and property damage. It urged residents to stay indoors until the storm passed.

The department also implored residents to not call dispatchers to ask about the storm or when power would be restored so lines could remain open for emergency calls.

The storm knocked out the dispatch department's non-emergency phone line, and its 911 line worked sporadically Saturday evening..

According to Xcel Energy's power-outage map, Tucumcari had almost 2,500 customers without power during the peak of the storm Saturday night because of high winds or lightning strikes. Customers saw their power restored within a few hours.

The heavy rain caused widespread flooding in low areas throughout the city. At least three vehicles stalled out when motorists tried to drive through standing water too fast, according to police dispatch reports. Dispatchers also sent police officers on five motorist-assist calls that evening.

Karen Alarcon of the KTNM and KQAY in Tucumcari posted on social media video and photos of floodwaters surrounding and inside the radio station. The stations remained on the air Sunday.

Most Tucumcari observers measured between 2 and 3 inches of rain Saturday night, though a few reported more than 4 inches.

In an indication of the storm's isolated impact, Tucumcari Municipal Airport a few miles east of the city recorded just 0.10 inches of rain.