[ad_1]
More than 5,000 Southern California Edison customers in Ventura and Los Angeles counties were without power on Thanksgiving night, and 100,000 more were at risk of seeing the lights turned off as high winds increased the risk of a wildfire , officials said.
Homes in areas such as Simi Valley, Moorpark and Santa Clarita have been affected by outages as part of the utility company’s public safety power outage program, which aims to reduce the risk of electrical systems become a point of ignition of forest fires.
As of 5 p.m., 3,015 customers were without power in Ventura County and 2,127 in LA County, according to an outage map maintained by the utility company. According to the company, 106,461 more customers could have their power cut in Ventura, LA, Kern, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, depending on weather conditions.
The shutdowns were underway as meteorologists warned of potential wind gusts in Santa Ana of up to 65 mph in parts of the San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica Mountains. Ventura and Los Angeles counties are both under red flag warnings this weekend, meaning conditions are ideal for wildfires to start.
The utility company said its decision to implement risk-based shutdowns was based on information gathered from hundreds of weather stations and wildfire cameras.
“We’re really nice about what’s going on, number one, during the pandemic when people are at home, and two, during the holidays,” said Jeff Monford, senior advisor at Edison International, who said that some of the affected customers included company employees. .
Customers were first notified of the potential outages on Tuesday, Monford said. The company has also established resource centers and sent trucks to some of the affected areas to provide water, snacks and charging stations, he said.
Edison came under scrutiny earlier this year after the company admitted the Bobcat Fire, which marked 115,000 acres in LA County and destroyed dozens of homes, may have started after tree branches hit his equipment.
[ad_2]
Source link