RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – NV Energy issued a PSOM (Public Safety Outage Management) in parts of northern Nevada on Wednesday in an effort to reduce fire danger. “I looked out the windows and the whole neighborhood was dark,” said Mary Doyle, a resident who lost power in west Reno.

About 15,000 NV Energy customers woke up without power. “The house is cold. That’s the worst,” Katie Cole added. “The house is cold. It’s warmer here than in my house.”

The planned outage is hitting entrepreneurs hard. “It’s a big hit because customers are affected and employees are affected. We are affected,” said Mimi Butler, owner of Buenos Grill, a staple of the local community for 25 years. ‘That’s a whole day’s work. We are open every day and losing some of the sales for the month is big. It is also worrying because our employees are not coming to work. For them, they don’t get their salary for today. We cannot serve our customers for our customers.”

Many business owners in the Mayberry Landing Complex are adapting to the “no bueno” message this morning. Some owners had to use generators, while others rushed to alert staff and avoid obstacles.

“A little more warning would be nice,” said Cole Butler, the manager of Buenos Grill. “We woke up this morning and I didn’t hear it until around nine o’clock. I was planning on coming in at ten so I stopped at the store and bought some dry ice. We may or may not be open today.”

Butler says preserving food and produce is key in a situation like this. “It’s all about saving products especially now that we are not open. The refrigerator is not working. We just have to hide a little and save ourselves.’

The restaurant says they are missing out on several thousand dollars due to the outage. ‘I have been informed that the power is not expected to be switched back on until tomorrow afternoon. I had to text again and say it looks like you’re not coming. We don’t need you today because we’re not open,” Mimi Butler said.

The owner says the store is rarely closed throughout the year and she is not used to turning customers away. “I had to change our outgoing message and forward company calls to my personal phone so I can let our customers know what is happening and why we are closed. Hopefully we will invite them to come back tomorrow when we are open again.”

NV Energy says power will be restored to some of the affected areas tonight and to the rest hopefully sometime tomorrow.

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