High winds uproot trees, cause power outages in Nye County
High wind in the Pahrump Valley caused havoc for some residents and across Nye and Esmeralda counties, including power outages and a downed tree, as well as other reports. An unofficial reading of 72 mph (official at 50 mph) gusts in Pahrump were reported by the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.
Pahrump resident Darrel Hallowell lives in a home near Fern and David streets in Pahrump, where he reported that a large tree in his front yard was unable to withstand the strong gusts of wind and was ultimately uprooted, landing across his driveway.
“It was still pretty early in the night on Sunday, I was sitting there watching TV and I heard it come down. I thought it hit the house!” Hallowell told the Pahrump Valley Times on Monday morning. “I came outside and said, ‘Oh God! The whole tree came down.’ Sometimes we park out here, too. Just think, if we’d been parked out here, the car would have been destroyed.”
Through a stroke of luck, Hallowell’s vehicle was parked several feet away from the tree’s crash site and suffered no damage. As it was, the tree barely grazed his front porch, scattering a litter of debris across the steps and driveway but otherwise leaving the house unscathed, a fact for which Hallowell said he was very grateful.
Other Nye residents took to the Pahrump Valley Times’ social media pages and reported their experiences with the high winds.
“Our trampoline took flight and landed two lots away,” said reader Jonelle Keith on the Times’ Facebook page. “No serious damage to our neighbor’s property thank goodness.”
“Was a wild wind event!!” said Judy Thompson on the Times’ Facebook page.
According to a report from the National Weather Service in Las Vegas, Mercury had winds of 78 mph, the highest in Nye County. The Tonopah Airport was the second highest at 76 mph, with Amargosa Valley seeing winds of 71 mph.
The weather service had Pahrump at 50 mph for an official reading, unofficial from a weather spotter in Pahrump was 72 mph, according to the weather service’s Twitter feed.
“We didn’t use that as a local storm report because it’s unofficial,” said a meteorologist with the weather service in Las Vegas. “But it’s from one of our trusted weather spotters in Pahrump.”
Power outages also hit the valley.
Valley Electric Association Inc. had eight wind-related outages on Sunday, according to a spokeswoman at the co-op.
“These were all wind-related outages caused by tree limbs and/or trees breaking and falling into the lines or debris blowing and hitting the line causing the associated equipment to operate,” said Candace Perkins, marketing manager at Valley Electric. “All equipment worked as designed for the protection of the system and the public. There were approximately 378 accounts affected by the outages mentioned above.”
Temperatures on Wednesday will be in the mid-50s with the high temperature rising to 70 by Friday.
According to the National Weather Service, no heavy winds are on the way to Pahrump through the weekend, though there could be a slight breeze on Thursday.
Contact Pahrump Valley Times Interim Editor Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com
Reporter Robin Hebrock contributed to this story, contact her at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
