Most of South Lake Tahoe not facing power shut-off Sunday, but Meyers and Christmas Valley in the PSPS zone

UPDATE 9/18 3:45PM - The two local power companies have moved the entire South Lake Tahoe and Shore Shore Nevada into an elevated warning stage. For more, visit HERE.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Some customers of Liberty Utilities are being warned of the possibility of a de-energization of the energy system starting at 1:00 a.m. Sunday, September 19 due to forecasted weather conditions. The previous announcement of all of South Lake Tahoe being affected by the Public Safety Power Shut-Off (PSPS) has been rescinded as NV Energy most likely is not in need of taking down the energy backbone that supplies most of the South Shore. If it were still needed, all 49,000 Liberty Utilities customers would be shut down.

The areas that remain most in risk for the PSPS includes Christmas Valley, North Upper Truckee, Angora Ridge, Fallen Leaf Lake, Ward Creek, Hope Valley, Coleville, Walker, Floriston and Verdi. High winds in the forecast models for these areas remain.

On the Nevada side, NV Energy has notified residents from Glenbrook to Kingsbury a notice they are on a de-energization watch from 8:00 p.m. Saturday to 8:00 p.m. Sunday.

Rain with the high winds can be okay, but if wind comes prior to rain that is where the issue lies, according to Travis Johnson, vice president of operations for Liberty Tahoe region. He said they take wind speed, Fosberg Fire Weather Index (FWI), and ERC (energy release component that measure dryness of fuels in relationship to fire) to determine which areas could be affected in a weather event like the one forecast for Sunday.

In the attached map (can be found here), Liberty customers can type in their address to see area affected by the PSPS and by visiting the online version, specific addresses can be added.

"This is the very last thing we want to do," said Johnson of a PSPS. "Stopping a fire is our goal."

The wind event is expected from 1:00 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. If the power is shut down there will be community resource centers set up by Liberty from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Sunday and Monday (a list and address will be updated in this story when provided).

If required, the center in South Lake Tahoe will be at South Tahoe Middle School, 2930 Lake Tahoe Blvd. There will be bottled water, snacks, charging stations, ADA complaint restrooms and a Liberty Utility representative. In Coleville/Walker it will be at the Walker Community Center and in Markleeville, at the Washoe Community Center.

If power is shut off all power lines must be inspected prior to it going back on, which could take until 5:00 p.m. Monday. They would patrol make sure no branches or debris is on any of their lines in the Sierra.

If NV Energy sees that conditions have changed and warrant a PSPS in all of South Lake Tahoe, customers will be notified via email, text and/or phone, depending on information on their customer account.

As areas are de-energized, some customers who will not fall into the PSPS may experience a short outage.

Liberty employs a team of fire scientists that are watching and analyzing the situation closely as nobody wants another fire started.

There are some planned outages in Christmas Valley next week due to the Caldor Fire as crews replace power lines and poles.

For more information on the Liberty PSPS, visit http://california.libertyutilities.com.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/.