Power Shutoffs Continue Amid Strong Winds In San Diego County

SAN DIEGO, CA — Thousands of SDG&E remain without power Thursday morning as critical fire weather conditions prompted new and continued public safety power shutoffs in parts of the region.

While power was restored to some areas where conditions improved on Wednesday, some residents remained without power overnight due to continued high fire risk conditions and other residents had their power turned back off Thursday morning.

"SDG&E meteorologists, along with the National Weather Service, expect Santa Ana winds to reach peak speeds and to continue early this morning that could persist through Friday," the utility company said in a news release Thursday. "Customers who previously had power restored during this ongoing public safety power shutoff may need to be de-energized for safety once again in the early morning hours."

Public safety power shutoffs began Monday, with SDG&E cutting power to hundreds of customers in an effort to reduce wildfire risk.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, 12,140 SDG&E customers were without power in communities across the county in an effort to reduce wildfire risk. A total of 71,485 additional customers could be affected by the outages.

A red flag warning was extended until 10 a.m. Friday for the county's inland valleys and mountains, according to the NWS. A high wind warning will be in effect until 6 p.m. Thursday for the mountains and valleys.

SDG&E said restoration times "can vary depending on weather conditions and wind speeds, the length of each power line, the terrain and whether aerial inspections are necessary."

"Typically, SDG&E crews require four to eight hours of daylight to thoroughly inspect power lines on foot and by air for potential safety hazards," the company said.

Possible hazards could include downed wires, debris, tree branches, broken poles and hardware, or communication wire issues, according to SDG&E.

"If any damage is found, SDG&E crews will promptly perform the necessary repairs before safely restoring power to affected communities," the company said. "Additionally, as SDG&E works to restore power to communities, some areas may remain dark while nearby lights are on, this happens because different parts of a neighborhood may be on separate circuits, and not all can be restored simultaneously."

SDG&E opened community resource centers to assist affected communities. The 10 fully staffed centers have wi-fi and charging stations for phone and medical devices. They will be open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Thursday.

"SDG&E understands how challenging it is to be without power and remains focused on providing critical resources to impacted customers to help them during this time," the company said.

A list of impacted communities and community resource center locations was available at sdge.com/ready.