As Santa Ana winds mercilessly sweep across Southern California, a series of electrical outages have plunged over 55,000 Southern California Edison customers into darkness, according to reports by NBC Los Angeles. The strong gusts didn't discriminate, as they fueled dangerous wildfires and compromised infrastructure across multiple counties. In Los Angeles County alone, 49 outages were reported affecting 32,451 customers.
Unyielding and fierce, the windstorm was predicted to be the most powerful since 2011. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had around 127,000 customers without electricity, as stated by CBS News Los Angeles. Restoration efforts had managed to bring light back to 24,400 homes earlier that day. SoCal Edison also reported more than 52,000 customers without power as of midnight, with a significant blackout in Duarte.
Public safety power shutoffs (PSPS), a preemptive tactic to prevent wildfires from being sparked by the grid during red flag conditions, left additional tens of thousands without electricity. According to Patch, as of Wednesday morning, the PSPS affected 141,276 SCE customers, with more than 430,000 potentially at risk in anticipation of the weather conditions. These included customers in Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, with potential shutoffs still looming.
Residents and businesses found themselves grappling with the outages, instructed to prepare for what could come. Customers were advised to "keep important telephone numbers near their home's main phone, have easy access to flashlights, install surge protectors for valuable electronics and learn to manually open any automatic garage doors or gates." For the latest information on the outages and shutoffs, updates are available at SoCal Edison's and SDG&E's outage information websites.
