Sense of normalcy returns with power on in most of Tahoe
By Kathryn Reed
About 200 customers on the South Shore are still without power as crews from Sierra Pacific Power continue to rectify the problem.
A handful of customers around the lake are also off the grid.
“All three of the circuits that had been knocked out of service yesterday by falling trees and tree limbs are back in service. Sierra Pacific Power has fresh crews at work restoring service for the customers still affected by outages and we hope to have electric service restored to everyone sometime tonight,” Karl Walquist, spokesman for the utility said late Thursday morning.
Sagging and downed power lines were the norm Wednesday in Tahoe. Photo/Kathryn Reed
Those in the Al Tahoe neighborhood of South Lake Tahoe heard furnaces turn on about 3am.
Although South Tahoe opened the rec center as refuge Wednesday night, no one showed up.
When the power is out and temperatures begin to plummet, freezing pipes are always a concern. Typically South Tahoe Public Utility District does not recommend running water because of the waste involved and then having to treat it as sewage.
However, South Tahoe PUD spokesman Dennis Cocking said on a temporary basis in circumstance like the night of Dec. 29 it’s reasonable to keep a trickle of water flowing to prevent pipes from freezing.
Heat tape and keeping the house warm, then opening cabinet doors where the pipes are, are the normal ways to help prevent pipes from freezing.
STPUD had to contend with the power outage on Wednesday with generators. The district has a five-day supply of diesel on hand for such occasions.
Continued cold and snowy weather are in the forecast for the Lake Tahoe area through Monday. While the low tonight in South Tahoe is expected to be 1 degree, it is nowhere near the minus 11 degrees Truckee recorded for this date in 1911.
Highs will hover in the high 20s, low 30s through Monday. A chance of snow is forecast for this afternoon, Friday night and for the weekend.
Marlette Circle (off Of Johnson Blvd) was still out as of 5:00pm tonight. Sections of Wildwood headed up towards Heavenly are still out.
And they say they can handle a serious emergency …..one medium snow storm,nothing but CHAOS.
Cables of every kind description down in the streets.
Called 911 cause we had a 12 foot limb on fire on the top power lines(6.15 p.m.),they came just watched it burn,The power company comes hours later,says they got a call from the fire dept….Talked with the guy, he had to call in for supervisor approval to get a crew over here to the burnt wires,another few hours tick bye,two trucks SHOWS UP, some crew that didn’t say sierra POWER,nothing but f words shouting in the silent night,THEY throw a line up jerk limb off,tear down a few phone lines in the process,drives off ,fire truck shows back up to inspect phone lines in inter-section,they get out flashed lights around .stand there bull-hit,guy tells the other guy don’t want cut the line in intersection,they drive off leave lines down in inter section,wake up this morning someone drove through line ripped down boxes off pole , neighbor house,power came back on at 6 this morning.
I could hardly call this a coordinated attempt to put out the fire or turn the power back on in a timely manner.
Hope we never have a real situation disaster again, cause it burn like the first time.
Our power was out for 12+ hrs, and Ski Run/Pioneer Trail traffic light is still out; which is causing a huge backup down Pioneer Trail.
What happened with the plows? They took 4x as long to plow our street.
Hah wait til the new startup power company takes over shortly. At least Sierra Pacific knows what it’s doing and actually shows up.
I really appreciate your great reporting Kae and find being well-informed a perfect start to my day.
When am I going to learn to stop at the end of the story and stop reading all the negativity spouted by some of the regulars who post. Seems like some of these folks would be lost if they didn’t have something to complain about. Well, thank goodness for Freedom of Speech I suppose. We each get our say. Thankfully we also each get the choice to tune it out.
Happy New Year everyone (even those of you who will grumble about that).