California Storm: Sacramento Residents Lose Power Amid Strong Winds, Rains

Strong winds and heavy rains knocked out power for more than 140,000 customers in California on Sunday evening. Sacramento was the worst affected area with over 80,000 customers without electricity.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District reported that over 10,000 customers in the Elk Grove area alone were without electricity. The power to the area is expected to be resorted by around 10 p.m. local time, Sunday (1 a.m. EST Monday).

According to the SMUD power outage map, other affected areas include Arden, Carl Expo, Carmichael, Florin and east Sacramento.

“We are experiencing scattered power outages due to the wet and windy weather. Our crews are working as quickly and as safely as possible to get your power restored. Thank you for your patience,” SMUD posted on Twitter.

SMUD spokeswoman Lindsay Vanlaningham said around 30 employees including eight line crews, five troubleshooters, operators and service dispatchers were sent to the affected areas in Sacramento to help restore the power supply.

“We had crews on standby ready for the storm. The winds can pose a problem, but they are working as quickly and safely as possible,” Vanlaningham said, local daily Sacbee reported.

The National Weather Service said the winter storm brought heavy rains and winds that gusted up to 49 mph (79 kph) on Sunday and that they are expected to continue through the morning hours of Monday.

California Highway Patrol said the heavy rains resulted in flooding of major roadways. While both directions of Highway 99 were flooded in Galt, the southbound lanes of I-5 were flooded in downtown Sacramento.

Marin County received three inches of rainfall, resulting in heavy flooding along San Francisco’s Great Highway. While heavy snow triggered avalanche warnings in parts of California, Utah and Nevada, blizzard conditions were also seen in the Sierra Nevada.

Two feet of snow was reported at Mammoth Mountain and over a foot was reported in the upper elevations around Tahoe.

Downed trees also resulted in several roads being blocked.

“Due to trees and power lines down in the road, Grantline Rd is closed in both directions between Elk Grove Blvd and Bond Rd. Also Bond Rd is closed between Bradshaw Rd to Grantline Rd. Please use alternate routes and avoid the area,” Elk Grove Police Department tweeted.

“W/B 8th street is closed right now at Mulberry due to a large tree down. Please try to avoid the area or if you cannot, please use caution,” City Of Davis Police Department posted on Facebook.

The California Highway Patrol responded to several accident reports which include several vehicles getting stuck on the scenic route northwest of Los Angeles. A stretch of the route was expected to remain closed in both directions until Monday.