Saturday rain, storms drench Rio Rancho

Rio Rancho is drying out Sunday after strong system of rain and thunderstorms moved through Rio Rancho and the metro area Saturday night, prompting a severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings.

The storms also caused power issues, with about 20,000 outages in the metro, according to PNM's Facebook page, including a large section of Rio Rancho. About a dozen of those outages remained Sunday morning, including about a dozen Rio Rancho customers affected on 26th and 27th streets just off Southern Boulevard.

At one point Saturday night, according to an outage map posted to Mayor Gregg Hull's Facebook page, a large swath of Rio Rancho south of High Resort Boulevard and West of NM 528 was without power.

The Rio Rancho Police Department also posted that the power outages affected several traffic lights in the city Saturday night with operation now restored.

They also noted flash flooding was "affecting the safety of the roadways."

The city of Rio Rancho had crews out on dirt roads — mainly in areas off Northern Boulevard — after the storm to make sure access for residents was maintained, communications specialist Jaley Turpin said.

Central Rio Rancho saw 1.6 inches of rain in a 24-hour period from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, the National Weather Service said Monday.