NV Energy Repairing Damaged Powerlines After High Winds Cause Major Power Outage | Local News

About 6,000 northern Nevada residents lost power after intense winds battered power lines throughout Saturday night.

NV Energy’s crews have been repairing damaged powerlines since early Saturday evening.

“Whenever we go through a holiday weekend like this, and we have storms that are coming in we always make sure that we have crews that are available and on call in case we run into a situation like this, so we did enact our emergency plan last night and made sure that those crews were available,” said Jesse Murray, Vice President of Electric Delivery with NV Energy.

While in some cases the winds simply blew trees into the power lines or made them fall over, Murray says that a lot of these outages were caused by people’s property flying into the power lines.

“From a customer’s perspective I think that it’s really important to make sure that tarps or patio furniture that’s loose and could be blown out by the wind, making sure that those are secure before the winds come up, so they don’t become flying objects that potentially impact our power lines,” said Murray.

Murray tells us that it’s important to be prepared for power outages such as keeping a stock of non-perishable foods, having enough medication on hand, and carefully using generators.

“If you’re using portable generator or anything like that to keep your refrigerator powered just please be mindful that those generators are in a well-ventilated area away from your home so that you don’t potentially expose yourself to carbon monoxide poisoning or other poisoning,” he said.

NV energy also wants to remind everyone that if you see a down line avoid it and report it.

“A down line is very dangerous so if you see a down line, please stay well clear of that line and of course call the police or NV energy to let us know that the power line is down so that we can respond and get it repaired as soon as possible.”