Posted By Peter Johnson on Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 11:57 AM Gusty winds and dry conditions caused PG&E to preemptively cut power to hundreds of households in rural southern San Luis Obispo County and Santa Maria on Jan. 19 part of the utility’s first wave of Public Safety Power Shutoffs in 2021. The shutoff, which spans seven Central California counties, is impacting 462 customers around Huasna, Suey, Twitchell Reservoir, and Tepusquet sparsely populated areas east of Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, and Santa Maria. click to enlarge MAP COURTESY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY SHUTOFFS More than 450 customers in SLO and northern Santa Barbara counties are without power due to a PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff on Jan. 19.
Residents across nine California counties could be without power Tuesday as officials aim to reduce fire risk from the powerful Santa Ana winds expected to roar through the region.
Ahead of the worst of the wind event, officials with Southern California Edison (SCE) implemented a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) in Canyon Country Monday morning, with power not expected to be restored to the area until Wednesday evening.
Additionally, nearly all of the Santa Clarita Valley was being monitored for similar outages as of Monday morning, with the longest duration listed as lasting through Wednesday.
“When forecasts indicate elevated weather conditions, we’ll begin assessing the potential impact to affected areas,” a statement from the SCE website reads. “We’ll analyze historical data to help predict the likelihood of a wildfire occurring, closely monitor weather watch alerts from the National Weather Service, and place incident responders on alert, if needed.”
As winds began picking up overnight and the strongest wind event of the season hit, more Santa Clarita Valley residents woke up without power Tuesday morning.
More than 14,600 Los Angeles County residents were without power Tuesday, including residents from Acton across to Newhall and up to Saugus, per Southern California Edison’s outage map.
Estimates for power restoration in some of these areas were not available Tuesday morning, and were expected to be updated as weather conditions improve. Other areas aren’t expected to be restored until noon Thursday.
Over the weekend, Edison customers across L.A. County, including many across the SCV, were added to the Public Safety Power Shutoff map, indicating their power may be shut off in the coming days.