LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Over 20,000 residents living in multiple Southern California counties suffered power outage Monday morning as heavy Santa Ana winds hit parts of the region.
The outages came amid the first major Santa Ana winds event of the season, which could reach 80 miles (135.2 kilometers) per hour below passes and canyons near the coastal slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains. The National Weather Service issued widespread red-flag warnings cautioning the public that wildfire conditions are ripe.
In Los Angeles county, according to local KTLA news channel, nearly 20,000 Southern California Edison (SCE) customers are in the dark, while more than 8,500 customers are without power in nearby Orange County, Ventura county and Riverside county.
However, none of these outages was an intentional shut-off by SCE. The major power supply company for the region sent out alerts notifying customers in 41 cities spread throughout four counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and San Bernardino, that power could possibly be turned off in order to avoid sparkling wildfire.
In the past, power equipment has been blamed for setting off wildfires that spread rapidly among the dry, windy conditions. The company is facing lawsuits over allegations its equipment was involved in starting the massive Thomas Fire, which was ignited in Southern California last December and caused over 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in damages.
"In extreme weather conditions, when heat and low humidity combine with high winds, SCE may activate a Public Safety Power Shutoff when power is turned off in a high fire risk area." SEC said in a statement, adding most warnings are set to expire at 8 pm Tuesday.
Monday morning could be the first time for the "Public Safety Power Shutoff" program to be put into action. Meanwhile, due to the strong winds and outages, multiple schools in the Los Angeles county's San Gabriel Valley canceled classes.
A woman was killed Monday morning when high winds blew a tree on a vehicle the woman was inside in Tustin, about 60 kilometers southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
