SMUD resolves storm outages after a ‘long five days.’ Some PG&E customers remain in dark
.jpg "Thousands of capital region residents — which includes at least one college campus — remained without power Tuesday morning as punishing storm clouds drifted east from the second of two atmospheric rivers to pound Northern California.")
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District reported Friday morning that all outages caused by storm-related damage in its territory have been resolved, though hundreds in Northern California reliant on another major utility for power remain unconnected to the grid.
The powerful storm, featuring near-hurricane level gales, wrecked SMUD and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s equipment, knocked out electricity for nearly 1.4 million homes and businesses statewide. Wind gusts measured nearly 70 mph for Mather Airport, though rainfall totals remained within average totals. Four people died in Northern California by trees toppled in punishing gusts.
At its peak on Sunday, SMUD measured more than 200,000 ratepayers without power with four times as many PG&E customers spread out across Northern and Central California. By Friday, SMUD’s outages were whittled down to 110 homes and businesses, which were resolved by 4 a.m., according to a SMUD spokesman.
“It’s been a long five days, but we’re happy to say that all the outages from Sunday’s storm have been restored,” SMUD officials said Friday on social media. “Thank you to our entire community for your understanding this past week after the severe storm with high winds and heavy rain came roaring through.”
SMUD’s outage website said there were 38 customers cut off from power by about 9:50 a.m., though each instance occurred Friday morning. It included areas of Carmichael and Arden, where residents were among the first to be cut off from electricity on Sunday.
PG&E said Thursday it was focused on restoring power by Friday. A review of outage data provided to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services showed roughly 14,000 homes and businesses without electricity — more than 7,600 of which were disconnected Sunday or Monday.
The largest outages remained in the Bay Area and along the coast, according to Cal OES data. Contra Costa County had the most outages, more than 2,800 were in the dark; Monterey and Mendocino counties had over 1,100 customers without power a piece.
Elsewhere as the state dried out from the severe weather, 3,700 homes and businesses were without power in Southern California Edison and Los Angeles municipal territory, according to the OES data, while San Diego-area outages totaled nearly 1,700 for customers of SDGE.
Here were the outage totals as of 8 a.m. Friday for counties in the greater Sacramento region in PG&E’s territory:
▪ Placer: 183 customers
▪ Sutter: 138
▪ Nevada: 110
▪ Yuba: 68
▪ Yolo: 27
▪ El Dorado: 1