AMARILLO, TEXAS --

As of noon, about 7,500 customers without power in the Texas Panhandle/South Plains.

Many of these outages are related to transmission issues. Once the problems are identified and Xcel officials say they will be able to get crews to these remote areas, and get power restored fairly quickly. Officials said they are, however, encountering a lot of ice on the lines and switches, which slows us down somewhat.

Most of the problems tend to be along a line running west from New Mexico through Plainview and east toward Briscoe County. There are outages in Bovina, Lockney, Petersburg, Farwell, Silverton and Lariat.

Earlier Thursday morning Xcel officials said while their system is holding up relatively well there are a few problem spots.

Most outages are being caused by ice and wind, causing the lines to slap together and blow fuses.