NV Energy linemen work on power poles along Genoa Lane on Wednesday morning as a public safety outage warning was issued by the company.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
A public safety outage is more likely in Genoa and the Virginia City Highlands today after NV Energy upgraded a watch to a warning around 9:30 a.m.
“This means a proactive outage is likely to occur,” said NV Energy spokeswoman Katie Jo Collier.
The warning is in effect from 10 a.m. Wednesday through 9 a.m. Thursday as a cold front arrives in Western Nevada. It's the second time the possibility of a safety outage has been raised in two days.
Electricity is out to 33 power company customers along Jacks Valley Road as of 10:30 a.m. in Douglas County, within the area of the safety outage.
They are among 86 customers nvenergy.com reports are without electricity on Wednesday morning. Some of those may be related to a dump truck hitting a power pole near Out R Way and Old Ranch Road in Fish Springs that occurred at 11 a.m. Firefighters reported that the driver of the truck is safely out of the vehicle and they are awaiting the arrival of NV Energy.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for gusty winds and low humidity through 7 p.m. today.
Southwest winds of 25-35 mph, gusting to 50 mph are predicted through the day with some wind prone locations like the Highway 395-88 corridor seeing gusts of more than 60 mph at times.
“This timeframe includes the duration of the weather event and the time it will take NV Energy crews to inspect lines and other equipment for damage, vegetation or debris in order to safely restore power,” Collier said. “Based on current fire weather forecasts for Genoa, South Carson City and Virginia City Highlands, NV Energy is on for a Public Safety Outage Management event. During the event, NV Energy will proactively de-energize power for certain customers in high-risk zones to help protect the community and environment from wildfires.”
According to NVEnergy, factors that contribute to a proactive outage include weather conditions, vegetation levels that can be used as fuel for a fire, field observations, guidance from local fire departments and other first responders.
All impacted customers have been notified via phone, text and email messages, according to the company.
“We continue to monitor the fire weather conditions and will provide regular updates to impacted customers regarding the status of the outage event,” Collier said. “Based on past experience, wind conditions can escalate quickly without notice. The proactive outage may be cancelled if weather conditions improve.”
Visit nvenergy.com/PSOM for additional information.
