An estimated 262 Lyon County homes lost natural gas after a contractor accidentally hit a 4-inch line with a trackhoe, a spokesman for Southwest Gas said.
The accident happened about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Ring and Six Mile Canyon roads, said Roger Buehrer of Southwest Gas.
The outage effected 262 homes in Mark Twain with 158 getting service back by 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Cheryl Mosley, assistant manager of the Ranch House Restaurant at the Carson Plains Casino in Mark Twain, said the outage barely effected the dinner rush.
"We couldn't serve our specials and our burgers and such, but we had deli sandwiches and salads," she said. "We had a pretty average night."
Rick Golding, who runs the Desert Diner at the East 50 Bar, said he came in Wednesday morning to turn on the grills when he discovered there was no gas.
"If I don't have any gas, I won't have any business -- for the day anyway," he said.
Buehrer said the number of homes hit by the outage is unusual because the four-inch line was at the end of Southwest's service line.
Instead of having two lines, where a break could be isolated and not effect service, the contractor hit the only line that supplies those homes in Mark Twain.
"We had most of the homes back on within 12 hours," he said. "We are concerned anytime we have a customer service outage. We don't like it. It's an unfortunate circumstance."
