Potential power outages for Socal Edison, PG&E customers due to storm

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. — Socal Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric customers may experience potential power outages Saturday due to a historic storm hitting the central coast.

According to the PG&E Meteorologist Evan Duffey, the storm is expected to have the heaviest impact on communities along the Central Coast, which include Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties.

“The active storm track we experienced this week will continue into this weekend with a significant storm likely arriving on Sunday and continuing into Monday," said Duffey. "This storm is looking to be stronger than the Wednesday-Thursday system of this week, with gusty winds expected for large swaths of the territory accompanied by periods of heavy rain."

Socal Edison and PG&E are urging customers to prepare and plan for the storm, providing several safety tips that include to never touch downed wires, use generators safely, turn off appliances and use flashlights instead of candles.

Spokesperson Diane L. Castro for Socal Edison says they have been preparing for the atmospheric weather event.

"We work closely with our team of Meteorologists, to make sure we have crews in place — in the areas that will be most impacted," said Castro. "The reason why we do this is to make sure that we're ready to respond to potential outages, so we can safely restore power to our customers."

Castro also urges customers to begin learning how to manually open garage doors, in case the power is shut off. She also advised to make sure vehicles have enough gas or are charged enough to get around.

To check recent or upcoming outages Socal Edison customers are advised to go here.

For PG&E customers, if an outage does occur, they also have an online outage center you can see here.