Snow falls in downtown Genoa on Thursday afternoon.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
NV Energy made good progress restoring power to Lake Tahoe residents on Friday afternoon.
By 2:30 p.m., the power company had reduced the number of customers without electricity to 508 with restoration for most between 3:30-4 p.m.
Downed power lines resulted in Kingsbury being closed at Daggett Way for around three hours while workers repaired the lines.
At one point on Friday morning upwards 3,600 homes and businesses were without power from Stateline to Zephyr Cove. By lunch time, the company had reduced the outages to 1,616 customers.
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Most of the homes and businesses in Douglas County’s portion of Lake Tahoe were without electricity on Christmas Eve morning.
Nvenergy.com reported nearly 3,600 NV Energy customers from Kingsbury to Glenbrook were affected by the outage.
The 700 some customers whose power was knocked out by a vehicle accident on Tramway on Thursday morning are expected to see their service restored around 12:30 p.m.
Another 2,800 customers were reported without power starting around 8:30 a.m. No cause was given for the outage.
Tramway was closed as NV Energy workers replace a pole that was knocked down Thursday morning, cutting power to more than 700 Stateline homes and businesses.
Douglas County Search and Rescue and Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies shut down the highway at about 5:30 p.m.
NV Energy is estimating power will be restored to most residents at 10:30 p.m.
The collision occurred around 10:40 a.m. on Tramway near the Fox & Hound.
The first blast of a major storm arrived on Thursday morning bringing snow to lake level at Tahoe.
Chain controls are in effect for on Highway 50 from Carson City to Stateline and over Kingsbury Grade. Highway 88 closed from Hope Valley to Kirkwood. Chain controls are in effect over Echo and Donner summits. Expect chain controls to continue through the Christmas weekend.
The storm spurred the state to shut down at 1 p.m. Thursday. Local, state and federal offices are closed Christmas Eve because Christmas is on Saturday.
Nevada State Police, the California Highway Patrol and Douglas deputies responded to spin-outs all through the central Sierra.
Thursday morning was soggy with more than an inch of rain falling overnight in Genoa.
Rain continued to fall until it turned to snow around Genoa at 1 p.m.
A brief snowstorm brought heavy quarter-sized wet flakes across the Valley.
An estimated 2 inches of snow piled up in Nevada’s Oldest Town but with temperatures above freezing, it quickly turned to slush.
Southwest winds 15-25 mph, gusting to 45 mph, are expected to set Christmas decorations dancing starting 1 p.m. Friday. Windy conditions are expected to continue until 7 a.m. Saturday as another winter storm rolls into the Valley.
Windy conditions could bring additional power outages as wind-prone gust to more than 50 mph.
“A very active winter weather pattern continues as a series of storms impact the Sierra and Western Nevada this weekend and into early next week,” forecasters said on Thursday afternoon. “Snow levels will plummet to all valley floors by Saturday morning. Several inches of accumulating snowfall is looking increasingly likely beginning Christmas morning.”
