Crews work to get gas restored in Bernalillo, across state

February 06, 2011

we continue to follow the statewide natural gas crisis... new mexico gas company officials say the main pipeline that feeds into towns to the north-- is now up and running-- meanwhile the number of residents still without gas stands at around 24-thousand. "it's our hope that our customers will see the effort that we are putting forth to get them restored." at a news conference this morning the vice president of technical services said a mainline to taos, questa, espanola and red river is now re- energized and re- pressurized. the hope is to have everyone back on by sunday night. here is a look at progress as of 3- 45 this afternoon. the gas company reports 39- percent of service has been restored to bernalillo and santa ana pueblo. 11-percent to placitas. in alamogordo 55 percent of service has been restored. in tularosa, 18- percent, 43 percent in la luz and we're told service has been fully restored in silver city. all of these areas are expected to be completely restored by late this evening 29-percent of service in red river has been restored. work in taos and questa will begin tonight through tomorrow... re-lighting will begin in espanola and the remaining pueblos in the north central part of the state tomorrow through monday.// tonight furnances are being re-lit in bernalillo--again with some residents already back on line. cristina rodda is here to show us the work that's going on in bernalillo right now and how residents are reacting, cristina? relief, worry and frustration are just some of the emotions being felt in the town of bernalillo. new mexico gas workers are busy trying to get people in that town back on line. "i want to make sure it clicks on before we go." the heat is back on at mary ann's day care. nearly 60 new mexico gas company workers are in bernalillo today relighting and checking appliances. "i just had it turned up all the way just to get the light up." owner mary jaramillo is glad have the heat back but is still confused. "at this time and age we just can't figure out why we are going through this, it's crazy." jaramillo is also a city councilor. "what we have been worried about are the really frail people in bernalillo because we have some derly people that have been inconvenienced and confined to their homes. it's really cold for them." gas company workers were on the look out for the elderly, families-- anyone with a meter and no gas-- they're working fast but there are problems. "there's a lot of mechanical pieces that need to be relit sometimes those have problems they have been off now and not functioning trying to get them started. that can slow up the relighting process. new mexico gas vice president of technical services says an additional 30 workers will hit bernalillo tonight. meanwhile-- for those still without gas the wait is excruciating. "now our house is just frozen. we just can't keep it wa. we have electric heaters but they are just not producing enough heat." the natural gas crisis is being blamed on the surge in demand because of the cold weather and rolling black outs in texas that caused pipelines that feed gas to us to have low pressure. back to you. you can count on kob eyewitne news 4 to keep you updated on the latest information on the natural gas crisis, including efforts to restore gas service to tens of thousands of new mexicans. we'll have another live report coming up at 10.