Rain causes things to get 'crazy'

A storm that reminded one resident of a classic 1939 film quickly swept through eastern New Mexico on Saturday. It left large puddles, blown over trees and some soggy shoes in its wake.

The third annual sidewalk sale in Clovis had been scheduled to run until 5 p.m. but was cut short by the rain and a large amount of sand being blown around by high winds.

"Everything was wonderful until about 3 (when) it blew in," organizer Shane Grah said. "It was almost an immediate change. There were people all around and it blew in like 'The Wizard of Oz' and the air filled with dirt and things got crazy."

Grah said the quick change in weather had store owners rushing to get their antique and vintage goods off the sidewalk and into their shops out of the rain.

"People were scurrying, it was kind of a mad dash," Grah said.

With residents bunkering down in his store to avoid the rain, Grah said, "in the end it may have worked for the best and it may have encouraged a few more sales in store."

Elsewhere in Clovis, over by Llano Estacado, Dixi Burnett said a cottonwood tree that had stood in the front yard of her childhood home for more than 40 years was knocked over by the high winds.

Burnett said the tree had held a special place in her heart both for how long it had been present in her life and the fact that the limbs were easy to climb and sit in, perfect for her work as a photographer.

"The way it grew it was great for pictures," Burnett said. "It was kind of sad because it's part of my childhood and my kids' childhood and my grandkids.'"

Just after 3 p.m. on Saturday the National Weather Service in Albuquerque issued a flood warning for eastern New Mexico including Clovis, Texico, Grady, Cannon Air Force Base and Ranchvale.

NWS meteorologist Andrew Church said wind gusts as high as 66 mph and 56 mph were measured at Clovis Municipal Airport and Cannon Air Force Base, respectively.

NWS hydrometeorologist technician Dwight Koehn reported rainfall totals of .34 inches at Clovis Municipal Airport, .45 inches at Cannon and the Melrose range, .73 inches by the Blackwater Draw museum in Portales and 1.18 inches in Dora.

According to Xcel Energy's online outage map, as of 4:33 p.m. on Saturday there were 11 outages affecting 581 customers in the Clovis area.

Spokesman Wes Reeves said Xcel did not experience any widespread outages on Saturday and the service level outages the company did see are typical for this type of storm.

The storm did die down in time for Oasis State Park to host its 10th annual Biggest Catfish Derby though, Manager Ray Drake said.

"The wind laid up and the storm went around so it's pretty nice right now," Drake said around 4 p.m., about an hour before the fishing competition was set to get under way.

Forecasters predicted more rain for the coming week, with chances higher than 50 percent Monday through Wednesday.

Temperatures were also expected to nosedive from the mid-90s of last week. Highs all this week are expected to be in the upper 70s with lows around 60.