Power line outage causes lights to flicker Wednesday

Officials suspect a gunshot severed a power line, causing a temporary outage for some Carson City residents Wednesday.

Lights flickered across the city after a 120,000-volt electric transmission line failed, said spokesman Karl Walquist. The line, which runs from the base of Mount Rose through Washoe Valley, serves two substations in Carson City.

Service was automatically switched to alternate transmission lines, and the main line remained off.

Walquist said workers from the transmission department patrolled the line by helicopter Wednesday afternoon and discovered the damage.

"It had been evidently shot down," he said. "That does happen occasionally. Usually, it's insulators that people choose to use for target practice."

He said the damaged line was on the Washoe Valley side of Duck Hill off Highway 395.