Tree hits power line, knocking out electricity in SLO County town

Emergency crews responded to reports of downed power lines, a fallen tree and a damaged utility pole in Templeton on Sunday afternoon.

The incident was reported at about 12:38 p.m. as a traffic hazard involving a power line blocking the roadway, according to the California Highway Patrol traffic incident report page.

At 12:46 p.m., a CHP dispatch update citing Cal Fire stated that a “large tree” was down and blocking the road in the area of Finch Street and Lincoln Avenue. An electric pole was “snapped in half,” the log said. The update also requested a county roads response for a closure.

A separate CHP log at 1:12 p.m. reported a blacked-out traffic signal at the northbound Highway 101 off-ramp at Vineyard Drive that was “possibly related” to the earlier incident.

A PG&E outage map Sunday afternoon showed scattered outages affecting customers in portions of Templeton. Estimated restoration time was listed as of 4:15 p.m.

Crews were at the scene by about 12:45 p.m., according to dispatch records.

No injuries were immediately reported. As of 2:30 p.m., the incident was cleared from CHP’s log.

This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 2:40 PM.