After constant outages Santa Cruz County urging PG&E to fix its safety settings

High winds crusade thousands to lose power effectually county as red flag warning remains in effect

Due to powerful, dry out winds, more than 5,600 Pacific Gas and Electrical customers saw power outages Monday in Santa Cruz County, primarily in the mountains. The outages come as parts of the county remain under ruby-red flag warnings, since a single spark could cause a major wildfire.

Amid loftier wind warnings and increased fire danger, the electric utility planned to intentionally shut off power for about 25,000 Central and Northern California residents Monday, but the Santa Cruz outages were unplanned and caused past wind-related problems, such every bit fallen trees, tree branches or debris that could have affected power lines, according to company spokesperson Mayra Tostado.

Santa Cruz County residents are no strangers to power outages, every bit they've seen more than than 35 in recent months. The majority of these outages occurred in the southern part of the county, the San Lorenzo Valley and other parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The surface area's mountainous regions have been designated as "high fire run a risk" zones due to extreme drought conditions.

These outages are a effect of PG&Eastward's new "fast trip" settings, which the company implemented at the terminate of July in order to shut down power lines within a tenth of a second once triggered. Though the company says this system has been successful at fending off potential sparks and wildfires, it has resulted in the lines being extra sensitive: Even a squirrel chewing a line can shut ability downwards for thousands of residents for hours.

Monday'south outages, however, were largely triggered by high winds, with the Santa Cruz Mountains under cherry-red flag warnings and expecting to see gusts from 35 to 50 mph through the afternoon.

Hither'south a breakdown of the number of customers affected by the outages in Santa Cruz County as of 3 p.m. Mon, according to Tostado.

Boulder Creek: 1,636
Felton: 430
Santa Cruz: 463
Scotts Valley: one,925
Soquel: 472
Watsonville: 503

While it was nevertheless to be announced when the ability would be back on for near of these customers, PG&E had assigned crews to appraise the harm to electrical lines prior to restoring power. According to PG&E's map of current outages, many Scotts Valley residents could get ability again by half-dozen p.m. Monday.

Wind-related outages were affecting approximately 12,000 residents across the Primal Coast, Tostado said.

"Due to all-encompassing and widespread harm, PG&Eastward crews are responding to multiple outages in different locations where tree crews have to remove trees or other debris before PG&Due east tin safely brainstorm repairing or replacing damaged equipment," Tostado said via e-mail. "We will work effectually-the-clock to restore power to our customers safely and as speedily equally possible."

Earlier Mon, the Los Angeles Times reported that more than 34,000 Californians could see electricity intentionally shut off every bit high winds increase fire danger, and this doesn't even affect on unplanned outages, as in Santa Cruz County.

As loftier winds go along to impact the Central Declension, more than outage activity is possible through at least Tuesday. PG&East urges customers to never touch downed wires, and to prepare for storms by securing outdoor furniture and having a backup phone, a properly installed generator, flashlights and fresh drinking h2o and ice.