TRUCKEE, Calif — A storm-related outage knocked out power for thousands of residents in the Truckee area all while they're preparing for a busy holiday season.
About 8,000 Truckee Donner Public Utility customers lost power. According to the company’s outage page, it was due to transmission issues. The power went out around 6 a.m. and returned around 1 p.m., according to their website.
Buff Wendt was one of those impacted.
"My power is out, so yes, I am stocking up,” she said.
Others like Jake Hudson were also shopping before the town gets too busy with guests.
The town of Truckee is not just bracing for a storm, but also for the droves of skiers and snowboarders headed up for the start of the season and the upcoming Thanksgiving break.
Katie Baillargeon says she'll be staying in this weekend avoiding it all.
“We embrace people coming up, so we are all for it. It gets hectic, but it’s why we live here,’ Baillargeon said.
James Blattler with the Office of Emergency Services for the town of Truckee says law enforcement and public works are fully staffed for the weekend storm and travelers. They are calling this the first larger snow of the season.
“There have been some really high winds which have resulted in fire danger on the Nevada side of the border. Because of that NV Energy has issued Power Safety Outage Management (PSOM), also known as a PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) on the California side. We here in Truckee are at the whim of electrical power coming from Nevada side, so we are under a PSOM warning,” he said. The warning was canceled just before 5 p.m.
The town of Truckee is asking everyone to sign up for emergency alerts through the Code Red System or Tahoe Alerts to be prepared for this storm and the rest of the season.
In response to the outage, the Truckee Donner Public Utilities District provided the following statement:
Truckee Donner PUD had one outage today that was weather related and was due to a NV Energy transmission outage (note: Truckee Donner PUD does not generate power locally and are dependent on NV Energy for transmission). The outage was from ~10:30AM to ~1:15PM and impacted ~4,000 customers in the Donner Lake and Tahoe Donner neighborhoods. The cause of the outage was a fault on the NV Energy transmission system in the Truckee area. Truckee Donner PUD appreciates the patience of our customers as we worked with NV Energy to safely restore power.
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