Washington (Platts)--4Jan2008
More than 1 million California customers, including 900,000 plus in
Pacific Gas & Electric's service territory, were without power Friday
afternoon as a fierce winter storm that brought rain, snow and wind gusts of
up to 70 mph continued to batter parts of central and northern California,
utility officials said.
PG&E said around 4 pm EST (2100 GMT) that about 932,000 of its customers
were without service, and that 384,000 of the outages are located in the Bay
Area, with most of those centered on the North Bay and San Francisco
peninsula.
PG&E spokeswoman Katie Romans said that due to high winds, utility crews
were being pulled from restoration efforts in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The
crews will return as soon as it is safe to do so, Romans said.
The utility said the storm damaged 52 poles, about 19 miles of
transmission and distribution lines, 50 transformers and 86 cross arms. Power
has been restored to 276,000 customers, Romans said.
Sacramento Municipal Utility District officials said that about 100,000
of its customers were without power. The hardest hit areas in SMUD's service
territory were the southern portion of Sacramento County and Carmichael, which
is east of Sacramento.
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