Power outages sweep across SLO County, leaving thousands without electricity
Update 4 p.m.:
PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan said power has been restored to all but 580 local customers as of Monday evening.
Mesesan said there was no evidence of downed wires found in the two larger outages.
“Safety is our most important responsibility,” he said. “Crews are working to safely restore remaining customers.”
Original story:
Thousands of people were without electricity in San Luis Obispo County after a series of outages began Monday afternoon.
According to PG&E’s outage map, there are at least three major outages across the county as of 3:30 p.m.
The first began at 11:46 a.m. in the Pismo Beach area, and is currently impacting about 528 customers.
A fire broke out in the Price Canyon Road area of Pismo Beach on Monday morning, but was extinguished by the afternoon.
According to PG&E, that outage was caused by an equipment issue. Power is expected to be restored by 4:30 p.m.
The second and third outages began simultaneously around 2:30 p.m. One, stretching along the Cuesta Ridge below Santa Margarita and into northern San Luis Obispo was impacting about 788 customers as of 3:30 p.m., according to PG&E.
The other was affecting about 1,396 customers south of Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo.
The cause of those outages was unknown as of Monday afternoon. PG&E said power was expected to be restored around 5:30 p.m.
PG&E spokesman Mark Mesesan said the local outages were not related to any Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which the utility company warned some California counties they could see due to high fire danger on Monday.
Mesesan added that PG&E is also investigating five other outages impacting about 450 customers as of Monday afternoon.
The outages took place the same day the county was under a wind advisory with warnings of critical fire danger.
Santa Ana winds were expected to bring winds 20 to 35 mph, with gusts of up to 60 mph Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 3:46 PM.
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