Update: Power restored to some SLO County customers, but public safety shutoff continues
Update, 2 p.m.
By 2 p.m., PG&E crews had restored power to all but 62 Cambria residents who lost power on Tuesday, likely due to high winds.
Unplanned power outages continued to impact 104 PG&E customers throughout San Luis Obispo County, while 91 customers were impacted by a planned public safety power shutoff to prevent wildfires.
Update, 1 p.m.
Unplanned power outages likely caused by high winds impacted hundreds of PG&E customers in the North County and on the North Coast on Tuesday.
The biggest outages affected 452 customers in the Templeton area and 833 customers in Cambria in the Marine Terrace neighborhood south of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, according to the PG&E outage map. Another 50 were without power along Highway 46 West.
PG&E dispatched crews to assess the situations in those locations. Shortly after 1 p.m., PG&E had restored power to all but 61 of the customers in Templeton, located east of Main Street.
Elsewhere, three customers in San Luis Obispo, one in Los Osos, six in Nipomo, two in Morro Bay and one in San Miguel were also impacted.
Original story:
Nearly 100 San Luis Obispo County customers lost power on Tuesday morning after high winds prompted PG&E to shut off electricity in the South County.
PG&E reported about 9:30 a.m. that public safety power shutoffs impacted 91 customers in Arroyo Grande and Nipomo, according to the company’s power outage map.
The company shut off power to 12 homes in the Nipomo area and 79 customers in Arroyo Grande.
The shutoffs occurred near Huasna, Suey and Twitchell Reservoir, said the San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services (OES) in a tweet. Power to those areas is expected to remain down through tomorrow evening, the OES reported.
It’s the first time PG&E has instituted a public safety power shutoff in SLO County, Mesesan said. The shutoffs that occurred throughout the state on Tuesday are the first ones ever initiated during January, he said.
The company said on Monday it could cut power to as many as 380 homes in San Luis Obispo County, although that number was downgraded to 154 customers later that day, the OES said in a tweet.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued a wind advisory and predicted north to northeast winds of 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 45 mph throughout San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.
The agency also issued a red flag warning that will remain in effect through 10 a.m. on Wednesday, as well as a high surf advisory that will remain in effect until 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
“There will be an increased risk of fire ignitions due to downed trees and power lines, along with the threat of rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior, especially considering the very dry fuels in place across Southwest California,” the National Weather Service said.
PG&E has opened community resource centers for those impacted by the shutoffs at the Grover Beach Community Center, 1230 Trouville Ave., and First Christian Church, 1550 South College Drive, Santa Maria, the OES tweet said.
Power shutoffs impact thousands statewide
High wind events on Tuesday throughout California prompted PG&E to cut power to thousands of customers statewide. The wind also toppled power lines and caused unexpected outages throughout the state, as well.
PG&E shut off power to hundreds of northern Santa Barbara County customers, as well as thousands more in Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Madera and Mariposa counties as a wildfire prevention measure.
Yosemite National Park also closed on Tuesday due to downed trees and power lines.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 10:22 AM.
