Storm Raises Havoc Again

By NICK YAMASHITA

Moapa Valley Progress

The summer monsoon season sent another storm through the communities of northeastern Clark County. Hitting on the evening of Monday, September 3, it caused a couple of traffic incidents in the area and knocked out power in Mesquite and Bunkerville just as people were finishing their Labor Day celebrations.

At approximately 6:35 pm that night, a power pole was struck by lightning along the 69 KV transmission line in Virgin Valley, according to Keith Buchhalter of Overton Power District (OPD). This resulted in all OPD customers on the south side of I-15 in Mesquite and Bunkerville to lose power. A total of 5,374 customers were affected by the power outage, Buchhalter said.

OPD immediately dispatched workers to the site of the problem. At 7:05 P.M., the crew was able to restore power to 4,918 customers. Power was restored to the remainder of the affected customers by 7:15.

Buchhalter said that he was proud of the OPD crews pointing out that they had to grab their gear, suit up, report to the location, and then repair the lines. They did it all, including fixing the problem and restoring power, within 45 minutes of the first call, Buchhalter said.
“Overton Power District works hard to safeguard its full system,” Buchhalter said. “Unfortunately, the company has no control over the great force of Mother Nature. We have people asking all the time why we have power outages and raise concerns that we are not doing our jobs. But it is quite the opposite. We are working harder than ever because of nature’s impending halt to electricity being transmitted to our customers. In the old days, when the power went out, it was out for hours, if not days. We are lucky to have power being only out for under an hour now.”

Moapa Valley was unaffected by the power outage. But the community still dealt with heavy rain and high winds creating lots of problems, especially with visibility on the roads.

One incident occurred near downtown Overton that night. An unidentified female, driving a small black SUV, was unable to see when turning on Moapa Valley Boulevard near the library in Overton. The vehicle left the road and ended up in a culvert by the intersection of Anderson and Moapa Valley Boulevard.

Since the driver had been driving slowly, she was not injured. With help from the volunteers of Moapa Valley Fire District, Metro Police officers, and residents who stopped to help, the vehicle was safely towed out of the culvert.

Areas of Overton experienced some flooding. Damage was minimal and no injuries were reported.