The City of Santa Fe said the area has dozens of powerlines down during a storm system that is expected to stay through the end of the week. “The leaves are still on the trees. That’s one of the issues about why the branches are breaking.

Several feet of snow were expected to fall in parts of New Mexico and Colorado over the next three days in what meteorologists said could be the worst blizzard to hit the region in decades, as the authorities warned of dangerous road conditions and power outages.

Tens of thousands of people in New Mexico were without power Thursday as the first major winter storm of the season rolled across the northern two-thirds of the state and into Colorado, bringing with it snow and fierce winds that forced schools and government offices to close.