Thanksgiving blackouts carried onto Black Friday after San Diego Gas and Electric issued Public Safety Power Shut Offs due to high winds which impacted thousands of San Diegans.
San Diego county issued a fire weather watch that went into effect at 4 a.m on Thursday to 6 p.m Friday in mountain and valley areas. According to the National Weather Service, this is due to Santa Ana winds, above average temperature and extremely low relative humidity.
As of Friday 3 p.m, 960 SDG&E customers were impacted by the shut offs in Boulevard, Campo Reservation and Descanso. Conditions that prompted the county wide fire weather watch caused the planned outages primarily in the East county. The Otay Reservoir in Chula Vista is still categorized as "high risk for PSPS" according to SDG&E outage map.
“SDG&E crews and personnel have worked tirelessly today to inspect power lines and restore power to thousands of customers in areas where winds have calmed and where it was safe to inspect the equipment for damage before restoration. Crews continue to conduct inspections and restoration efforts as areas are determined to be safe,” SDG&E said in a news release.
The number of outages dwindled since 9 a.m when SDG&E reported approximately 4,400 outages. On Thanksgiving day, more than 5,000 SDG&E customers were impacted by the power outages.
“Weather is improving and inspections of our system have begun. We'll restore power as soon as possible to areas where winds have calmed with no damage. You may be on a different circuit than neighbors, not all are restored at the same time,” SDG&E wrote on Twitter.
SDG&E continues to monitor weather conditions that are of high risk of causing fires. Customers will be actively notified if they are at risk of being affected. For the latest update on the number of customers and communities impacted, visit sdge.com/ready and the SDG&E Outage Map.
