SMUD crews working in storm to restore power; outages affected thousands across Sacramento

Treacherous winds from a major winter storm wreaked havoc on power lines across the capital region Saturday, knocking out power to more than 33,000 SMUD customers early Saturday before crews could restore connections.

At 9 a.m., the Sacramento Municipal Utility District reported 32,430 of its customers were knocked offline — the majority of those customers were in the southern part of the county.

More than 17,000 homes were in the dark south of Elk Grove and Wilton after an outage began at 8:40 a.m., according to SMUD’s outage page.

More than 12,000 homes and businesses were disconnected in south Sacramento — homes in Valley Hi/North Laguna, near Sacramento Executive Airport, around Cosumnes River College, and the unincorporated sections of Florin were affected. That major outage started at 8:38 a.m.

Lindsay VanLaningham, a spokeswoman for the utility, said that high winds across the region were the cause for the outages. She said crews were prepared for the inclement weather and had power restored to most locations around 10 a.m.

But the outages persisted elsewhere: Nearly 5,000 customers lost power in Arden Arcade, Rosemont and La Riveria before 9:30 a.m., and crews were anticipating a restoration in several hours.

By 10:30 a.m., around 7,000 homes and business were in the dark, a number that was expected to fluctuate throughout the day, according to SMUD.

Cars stuck in downed power lines

Meanwhile, Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District crews reported “multiple power lines down on top of or near multiple vehicles” in the area of Grant Line Road and Sunrise Boulevard near Sloughhouse just before 9 a.m. According to the CHP, as many as five cars with people inside were stuck amid the live downed lines from four poles.

“Currently there are no injuries reported,” Metro Fire said in a social media post. “Occupants have been instructed to stay inside their vehicles until SMUD arrives.”

Crews were able to de-energize the lines around 11 a.m., allowing the motorists safe passage.

Outages dot SMUD, PG&E territories

Lesser clusters of outage of around 1,000 customers, were reported in Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Carmichael and North Highlands as winds around the region gusted to as high as 45 mph due to the storm, which is forecast to bring “constant rain” to the Sacramento Valley through the weekend.

In the foothills east of Sacramento, more than 4,000 customers in El Dorado County were in the dark beginning at 8:30 a.m. due to the winds, the bulk of whom live in and around Placerville, according to PG&E officials. Nearly 3,500 homes around Smartville in Nevada County were also knocked offline around 8:50 a.m., the utility reported.

Both SMUD and PG&E encouraged motorists and others who see downed power lines to call 911 and not approach downed wires.

Statewide, more than 74,000 ratepayers were part of 437 outages around 9:30 a.m., the utility reported to state officials. That number dropped to 47,000 just before 10:30 a.m., according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

When will the winds stop?

The National Weather Service expects strong winds to persist across the region through the afternoon, adding that gusts would continue in the foothills and mountains through the evening.

This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 9:38 AM.