Wild winds on tornado anniversary

CLOVIS - A dry line weather front came through eastern New Mexico late Thursday afternoon, resulting in widespread but sporadic power outages and property damage in the area.

Local power companies had their hands full, with reports including a downed power line near Logan, two damaged lines in Fort Sumner, broken cross-bars in Tucumcari, and outages in the Shumate subdivision north of Mesa Elementary school.

All this on the anniversary of Clovis' historic tornado in 2007.

"We're getting calls left and right," said Thom Moore, Director of Member Services for Farmers' Electric. "And my grill blew off my back porch."

Other damages were more dramatic. Around 4 p.m. on Quail Court, near Hillcrest Park, a strong gust tore the sheet metal roof off a home and twisted it a half-rotation before dropping its front end on top of a house next door.

"I've already been through enough dang tornadoes. I'm tired of this," said Jamie Saldana, who has lived in the recently damaged home almost 30 years. "I was inside and the house started rumbling. The whole house felt like it was just going to take off and fly away."

Saldana and the other residents of her house were frightened but unaffected. Neighbors came over to check in, police responded and roofers came by to figure out how to stabilize the roof.

Moments earlier, on the 2900 block of Prince Street, another sheet metal roof came loose from the wind and damaged nearby power, cable, and telephone lines.

A dry line is a weather front marked by high moisture on one side and dryer humidities on the other, often from east to west.

"It formed somewhere between Fort Sumner and Clovis, and then it moved east," said Brent Wachter, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Albuquerque. "Some storms broke out along it, since the winds were already strong."

Wachter reported gusts over 60 mph with slight hail yesterday, with more wind to come today.

"Overall, we just have this specific system that's moving across the state. It's not so atypical for this time of year," he added.