Power Outages Begin in California Due to Wildfire Risk
Electricity was shut off as a preventive measure for tens of thousands of customers across California due to strong Santa Ana winds and high wildfire risk.
Electric utility companies cut power to tens of thousands of customers as a preventive measure due to hot and windy weather conditions and Santa Ana winds affecting the state of California.
Outages in Northern and Southern Regions
Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced that it cut power to approximately sixty-two thousand customers across twenty-six counties in Northern California starting Wednesday night.
Southern California Edison announced that an additional nineteen thousand subscribers were left without electricity in Los Angeles, Kern, and Ventura counties.
Meteorological Warnings and Expected Winds
The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for parts of central and Northern California from Thursday until Friday morning.
Severe winds reaching speeds of fifty to seventy miles per hour are expected to impact the San Gabriel and Santa Susana mountains.
Measures Taken by Authorities
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated that she instructed the fire department to deploy personnel and equipment before the winds began.
While two hundred firefighters responded to a forty-acre brush fire in the city of Azusa, evacuation orders were later downgraded to an advisory level.
Potential New Outages
Pacific Gas and Electric Company notified ninety thousand customers in twenty-nine counties that they could experience power outages.
Southern California Edison is evaluating outages that could affect a total of two hundred forty-five thousand subscribers, with one hundred twenty-four of them in Ventura County.