Winds that lashed Southern Nevada diminished on Friday, but continued to make life difficult for crews trying to restore power and repair damage from a day earlier.
NV Energy reported that 3,182 customers in Southern Nevada — 3,086 of them in Clark County — remained without power as of 4:30 p.m., a day after gusts clocked as high as 84 mph grounded airline flights, flipped semi-trucks, ripped away signs and downed trees and utility poles.
That was a big improvement from the more than 30,000 customers left sitting in the dark at the height of the storm. The utility said crews were continuing to clear debris from power lines and repair fallen poles, but cautioned that continuing high winds could cause more failures.
This was on Eastern & Stewart. #VegasWind #8NN pic.twitter.com/VJIirgSjxD
— provide (@_DR08_) March 31, 2017
One of the biggest remaining outages was caused by seven downed power poles at Koval Lane and Harmon Avenue that were toppled Thursday, said Jennifer Schuricht, a spokeswoman for the utility.
“We’re still replacing poles along Koval and Harmon; we have seven in and five more to go. We’re hoping to get everyone back up really soon,” she said.
Winds were expected to diminish overnight, with breezy conditions forecast for Saturday. Sunday was expected to be calm, the National Weather Service said.
Thursday’s storm caused widespread but mostly moderate damage throughout Southern Nevada.
MINOR DAMAGE ALONG STRIP
In addition to downed trees and power poles, four big rigs were toppled by strong gusts on Southern Nevada roads and motorists were at times slowed to a crawl by thick dust clouds that cut visibility at the storm’s peak.
Numerous signs were torn away along the Strip, and the Monte Carlo and Palms both sustained minor damage.
Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said late Friday he could offer no updates or estimates on how much it might cost to repair and clean up the mess.
The storm also brought high winds and heavy precipitation in some parts of north-central Nevada, knocking down power poles near Elko and dumping a record 0.73 inches of rain on Winnemucca on Thursday. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Humboldt River on Friday and a flood advisory for the East and West forks of the Walker River in Lyon County, extending into Saturday.
The Nevada Department of Insurance did not immediately respond to an inquiry about early damage estimates.
At its height, Thursday’s storm drew “Wizard of Oz” analogies on Twitter under the hashtag #VegasWinds and sent people on the streets scrambling for cover.
John Fogal, director of development at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, said homeless people rushed into the shelter on West Bonanza Avenue as the winds began to howl.
“It just kind of turned into a winter evening seemingly out of nowhere,” he said. “… We filled up. We made all of our resources available just to give people something.”
A host of private businesses also were helping with the cleanup, including roofing, landscaping and glass companies.
James Hilton had thought about taking Friday off to celebrate his 40th birthday. But the general manager of Kelly’s Glass & Mirror changed his plans when the storm began ripping commercial doors off their hinges and blowing out glass windows.
“I don’t mind it,” he said Friday, adding that the company’s 13 workers were out servicing about 10 emergencies each. “I like my work.”
‘THIS HAS BEEN CRAZY’
Lyle Polok of Summerlin-based Precision 702 Property Maintenance said his phone started ringing around 8 p.m. Thursday and kept him busy throughout the day Friday.
One of his clients saw a patio table fly through the air, but Polok one-upped her with his own story.
After a tree fell against the side of his home, damaging some roof tiles, he said he fired up a chainsaw only to hear a whistling sound that alerted him to a gas leak.
“It scared the crap out of me,” he said, adding that a utility crew came out to stop the leak.
“This has been crazy,” Polock said of the storm. “This one is the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
Kent Duits, a manager at Advanced Lighting & Electric Service of Henderson, said the company’s roughly 30 employees have been fixing street lights and parking lot poles since Thursday.
“They are all on overtime, at this point,” said Duits.
Pool service companies got an early start to their busy season, said Ron Rudy, owner of Priority Pools.
“We pretty much need to rent a dump truck,” he said. “It’s just a pool guy’s nightmare.”
http://www.reviewjournal.com/local/las-vegas/cleanup-begins-winds-continue-whip-southern-nevada
Man it was nasty ! If you have a truck and a chainsaw you can earn some side money. It’s normal this time of year for high winds, but this year was exceptional.