LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Strong gusty winds rolling across Southern California have forced thousands of power outages for more than 63,844 Southern California Edison customers, including 15,556 people in Los Angeles County.
A large number of customers affected in the Southland are in Malibu, where SoCal Edison officials said the combination of dry, gusty winds and dry ground with no recent rains creates the perfect storm for massively destructive wildfires. Early Thanksgiving morning, around 2 a.m. the National Weather Service recorded a peak wind gust of 77 mph.
Diane Castro with SoCal Edison said the company is doing everything it can to get the lights back on for customers to have a happy holiday.
"We take every attempt to reduce the number of customers affected and to reduce the length of the outage so we can turn the power on as soon as possible," she said, adding that the time for power to be turned back on varies by location.
"We wait for the weather condition, the wind event to die down. typical restoration times vary but they could range from from 3 to 8 hours after the circuit is cleared for inspection."
As some 57,000 people in L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura Counties are waking up with out power, SoCal Edison is considering another 156,484 shutoffs. To see if your areas is being considered, click here.