Severe weather may be to blame for leaving thousands of area residents "in the dark" last night. Tuesdays storms caused Xcel Energy to lose power at 20 substations. More than 16,000 customers from eastern New Mexico to here on the South Plains were affected, and more than 5,000 of those here in Lubbock alone. Xcel officials say this is the largest power outage in more than a decade. "We always hope for the best and we try, we want to try and keep the lights on, thats our job. But mother nature seems to have the upper hand sometimes," says Keith Turner, Xcels Control Center Leader. Power was eventually restored around 11:30 last night. Company officials are still investigating what caused the substations to go down.
