LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Wednesday could only be described as around the clock work.
Utility crews were spread around the Las Vegas Valley cleaning the mess left behind by Tuesday’s windstorms.
One of the hardest hit areas stretched along Tropicana Avenue where 32 utility poles went down across multiple miles.
The aftermath is something NV Energy Director of Operations Shannon Gregory hasn’t seen in years.
“I’ve been in the with envy energy for about 23 years. I’ve been in my current role as director for three years and a journeyman lineman for almost 30,” Gregory said.
“I spent some time in the Control Center and you can literally watch the wind roll through the valley at high winds, not just little breezes, right? Roll through the valley based on how much of an impact it has on our system. So when this happens, it’s not a surprise. The impact on this road especially, absolutely a surprise.”
Gregory spent the day coordinating multiple crews at several damage sights navigate removal, replacement and most importantly power restoration.
At its peak, more than 30,000 people lost power because of the storms, according to NV Energy.
The latest update FOX 5 received around 5 p.m. Tuesday reported less than 1,500 people still in the dark.
“The most challenging part is the customers that are affected. It has a great impact on the community,” Gregory said.
”It’s dealing with the community outreach side of things as well as trying to keep everybody safe and out of the way as well as our guys.” he added.
Another big challenge has been replacing the downed utility poles, many of which are made of wood.
When asked about updating those poles with steel, Gregory emphasized improvements coming down the line but the focus is getting power restored quickly in the short term.
“We do have programs in place to replace those structures, but we can’t replace everything all at once,” Gregory said.
“They will be changed out with wood structures, because we do have to order steel and have it brought in and manufactured specific for each job. So naturally this doesn’t allow us that amount of time. So we want to get the power on as quickly and safely as we can but we do look at when we rebuild circuits to put in that infrastructure that’s going to prevent further incident.”
Gregory hopes full power will be restored in the valley by Friday, the 4th of July.
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