Some in Kern Still in the Dark

By Louis Medina, The Bakersfield Californian

Jan. 6–From about late Thursday afternoon through Saturday evening, the storm system that buffeted California wreaked havoc for local and systemwide Pacific Gas & Electric customers.

Winds broke or blew down power poles and thrust tree limbs into powerlines. Electric lines burned after gusts slapped them together, sparking a major power mess.

“Systemwide there were enough downed powerlines to stretch from San Francisco to Bakersfield,” said Cindy Pollard, spokeswoman for PG&E’s Kern Division.

Pollard gave the following account of the storm’s damage:

In Kern County

As of 6:15 p.m. Saturday, power had been restored to more than 19,200 affected customers. But 92 customers were still without power as of 7:55 p.m.

Restoring power to customers in remote areas of the county, “where access is an issue,” would take longer, Pollard said.

The storm damaged four spans of high-voltage electrical cables and one span of a lower-voltage line.

Systemwide for PG&E

More than 1.8 million customers lost power as a result of the storm.

Power had been restored to almost 1.6 million customers, but 291,000 were still without power as of 7:45 p.m. Saturday.

The storm damaged 450 poles, 428 miles of wire, 373 transformers and 498 cross arms.

“Our repair crews are working as quickly and as safely as they can,” Pollard said. “We know that there will be many customers who will be without power through the weekend and maybe even longer.”

Northern California customers were likely to be more heavily affected, Pollard said.

“We thank all our customers for their patience as our crews work to restore power,” Pollard said.

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