Strong winds took to Southern California; lots of brace for power cuts

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) – Dangerous Santa Ana winds are sweeping into the Southland and presenting a greater risk of fire as thousands are at risk of cutting power.

Southern California will be hit by the trifecta of more wind, low relative humidity and low humidity on Tuesday, forcing firefighters to be on the alert.

A huge area is affected – from Santa Clarita to the high country, from the Los Angeles Basin to the Santa Monica Mountains and all the way to the coast. At the highest altitudes, gusts of wind could reach up to 90 mph.

“Right now we are under fire,” said Roland Sprewell of the LA County Fire Department. “We have an unrelenting season of wildfires that just can’t seem to let go.”

In response, local fire brigades deploy personnel. They send attack teams to places most at risk. They also restrict parking in areas with very high fire safety to ensure that fire engines have a parking space in the event of a fire.

In anticipation of the extreme winds, Edison in Southern California is already cutting power to some of its customers.

The wind was already howling Monday afternoon in San Bernardino’s North Park neighborhood, where residents braced for another power shutdown for public safety.

“Everyone is buying generators now, it’s pretty normal,” said James Garcia.

‘It is no longer a good normal. Nothing is a good normal anymore, ”said Joe Lunt.

Many of the neighbors have invested in power generators because of how often the electricity goes out during wind events.

“Today we made sure we have enough oil and gas to keep the generator running for 25-30 hours. We turned off for a maximum of 28 hours,” said Mary Beth Norris.

Norris says her grave concern is her elderly neighbors.

“To be honest, what I fear is the people who use oxygen machines, they have no way to keep it going once the battery is on their oxygen machine.”

Potentially, more than 32,000 Edison customers in Southern California in San Bernardino County could see outages in the coming days.

In Ventura County, more than 113,000 customers are bracing for a potential outage.

“Very strong and damaging winds are expected Monday morning through Wednesday morning, and with no rain for the past four weeks, predicted high winds and high temperatures will increase the risk of wildfires,” said Ron Gales of Edison in Southern California .

In Anaheim, high winds prompted officials to close the massive COVID-19 vaccination site at Disneyland on Tuesday. Appointments for Tuesday are being rescheduled, according to Anaheim city officials.

Turning off the power is designed to reduce the risk of fire caused by electrical equipment when strong wind is predicted. Several major fires in California have been linked to electrical equipment.

SCE customers can sign up for alerts to let them know when the power is off.

Some of the largest, most devastating wildfires in California history have been linked to electrical equipment.