Thousands lose power in SLO County as record-breaking heat continues
Update, 4:15 p.m.:
The Grover Beach Police Department said a crash was behind the outage impacting much of the Five Cities area as of Thursday afternoon.
According to a post on X, the traffic incident occurred in the area of Walnut Street and Farroll Avenue in Arroyo Grande.
The agency said Grover Beach residents “may receive emergency alerts regarding the power lines down in the roadway.”
“Please stay away from this area,” the post said. “It will likely take several hours for the power to be restored.”
Update, 3:45 p.m.:
Though an earlier outage in North County was mostly resolved as of Thursday afternoon — with only about 115 customers without power as of 3:45 p.m. — another outage has now cut off electricity to thousands of PG&E customers in South County.
According to PG&E’s outage map, 4,192 customers in the Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach and Oceano areas lost post around 3.25 p.m.
PG&E said its teams were evaluating the electrical system “to identify damaged sections and make necessary repairs in order to safely turn the power back on.” It did not offer an estimated time for when power would be back on.
The outage comes as record-breaking heat is expected across San Luis Obispo County.
In the impacted area of South County, temperatures were forecast to hit a high of about 95 degrees on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
Original story:
While a record-breaking heat wave swept across San Luis Obispo County, a power outage cut off electricity to more than 700 PG&E customers on Thursday afternoon.
According to PG&E’s outage report map, 744 customers in the Whitley Gardens and Shandon area lost power around 11:23 a.m.
As of 11:45 a.m., the cause of the outage was unknown.
“Our team is evaluating the electrical system to identify damaged sections and make necessary repairs in order to safely turn the power back on,” PG&E’s website said.
PG&E did not yet know when power would be restored.
In Shandon, the temperature could reach 91 degrees during the day, then lower to 47 degrees at night, according to the National Weather Service.
San Luis Obispo County is under a heat advisory until Friday at 8 p.m. The weather service warned of a high risk of heat illness for young children, the elderly and those without air conditioning.
“Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” the weather service said. “Take extra precautions when outside. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing. Try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.”
SLO’s cooling center at 40 Prado Road will be open Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., the city said in a news release earlier this week.
Paso Robles also offers a cooling center at the city library at 1000 Spring St.
This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 12:01 PM.
