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Jasmine Allen, 19, places a bouquet of red roses in a Flowerama van Tuesday afternoon. Delivery personnel at the Las Cruces floral and gift shop were delayed as long as two hours Monday in making Valentine's Day deliveries because of a two-hour power outage.

LAS CRUCES - Monday's power outage couldn't have come at a more bittersweet time for some businesses.

About 2,200 El Paso Electric customers lost power between 5:06 and 7:05 p.m., according to spokeswoman Teresa Souza, but thousands more were inconvenienced because the outage knocked out power to some of the city's busiest intersections, right at rush hour.

That was also the time that florists and other popular Valentine's Day stops were doing brisk business in cards, candy, balloons and flowers - deliveries of which were delayed for hours because so many intersections had to be treated as four-way stops.

"We had complaints because (packages) weren't delivered at the proper time because drivers couldn't get out of traffic," said Donna Watson, the owner of Flowerama, for whom Valentine's Day is one of her busiest days of the year, second only to Mother's Day.

The outage came less than two weeks after an arctic chill subjected many Las Crucens to four days of rolling blackouts due to the utility company's frozen generators.

Monday's disruption happened when a Mylar balloon bumped into power lines outside the St. Joseph Cemetery at Espina Street and Las Cruces Avenue, according to El Paso Electric, which serves about 90,000 New Mexico residents. The first customers in Las Cruces to regain power didn't do so until 6:42 p.m., she said.

Flowerama's delivery delays stacked up, Watson said, "because when you're late for one order, the order above them gets delayed.

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One person didn't get back to the shop until 7:30 (p.m.). They were expected by 5. We did call the customers and explain to them, because sometimes they're home and they don't know the power's out."

Souza said it's still unclear where the balloons came from because by the time workers arrived, the balloons were gone.

"The way the electrical system works, whenever it detects something is not right with the system, it shuts down to protect itself," Souza said. "Mylar balloons are metallic and they conduct electricity. When (they hit power lines) the system shuts down ... (Workers) had to distribute the power to other lines, so as not to affect a lot of people."

But among the customers affected were the Las Cruces Police Department and the 911 dispatch center, which are on a "critical area" of the grid, Souza said.

However, on Monday night, LCPD police spokesman Dan Trujillo said "Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority - the 911 call center - the Las Cruces police and fire departments, and other first responders are still able to communicate and are functioning normally."

According to Souza, "We always recommend there should be backup generators for those areas, like police and dispatch, because we can not guarantee that lightning won't strike or there's a huge wind storm."

Las Cruces wasn't alone in its balloon woes Monday night. Mylar balloons struck the San Francisco area, knocking out power to 1,775 customers in Concord, Calif., according to the Contra Costa Times. Several years ago, California tried to ban the electricity-conducting balloons because of how many blackouts they caused.

Another Mylar balloon knocked out power for two hours in Syracuse, N.Y., on Jan. 22., reported the Post-Standard, while downtown Dodge City, Kan., lost power for 45 minutes Jan. 26, according to the Dodge Globe.

Local residents experiencing a power outage can call (575) 523-7591 in New Mexico, (915) 877-3400 in Texas or the main customer service line at (800) 351-1621 for information.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.