Nevada County Considers Bringing In Truck Showers For Residents As Power Outage Continues
NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) — The long wait for all power to be restored in Nevada County has a new end in sight, only it's not giving anyone immediate relief.
Pacific Gas and Electric is sending alerts to customers that power should be restored by January 11 in the areas hit hardest by the Christmas weekend snowstorm. That would mean no power for a full two weeks and a day if the outages do last that long.
Rusty Witwer's solution for his Nevada County home with power and no hot water is a propane powered camping stove set up next to his kitchen sink.
"These things aren't that expensive, they're probably a hundred bucks," Witwer said. "And I just bring it inside along with the tank and boil water because I'm all electric."
Witwer just got his PG&E update on his cell phone. The utility is telling people in Nevada County they now expect to have all power restored by January 11.
That will mean another week for Witwer and many others without power — or hot running water.
"We're roughing it," Witwer said. "We're basically...it isn't 100 degrees so there aren't showers."
Nevada County's Office of Emergency Services has free firewood trucked in from as far away as Oregon for people without power.
Truck showers are also under consideration, based on requests submitted during a virtual town hall meeting.
Paul Cummings/Nevada County OES
Ic: 52:04
"I think the shower truck is an outstanding suggestion, i mean we need a dialogue with the community," Nevada County OES Manager.
Out of state utility crews could be seen on Nevada County streets helping PG&E repair power line damage.
Amidst the snowstorm disaster, there was also a dose of everyday life.
Garbage trucks are now picking up trash on streets that are accessible.
"We managed to get to most of our customers today, to do regular curbside and we missed them last week and we allowed them to put extra trash next to their carts " Waste Management spokesperson Paul Rosynsk said.
Nevada County's slow dig out of a snowstorm disaster zone.
The wait could last another full week.
"This was ground zero," Witwer said. "This is big, this is big."
