SACRAMENTO, Calif. — UPDATED: 4:20 a.m.
Heavy rains and strong winds whipping through Sacramento are expected to knock down power lines, prompting widespread blackouts throughout the county, SMUD officials said.
SMUD worked through the day and into the night Wednesday to restore power to thousands who lost electricity from the season's first major storm system. At it's peak, the storm knocked out power about 23,000 customers, most of which were located in Arden-Arcade and Elk Grove.
In Davis, thousands of PG&E customers lost power, too, because of the high-wind storm.
Meanwhile, a large swath of the Tahoe area is a winter storm warning through 4 p.m. Thursday as upwards of 2 feet of snow is expected to fall at high elevations, and wind gusts up to 85 mph to sweep over ridgetops.
The storm system shut down Interstate 80 near in both directions over Donner Pass for hours Tuesday, stranding drivers on the roads until the evening.
ORIGINAL:
SMUD is working quickly to restore power to customers after thousands were left in the dark, Tuesday evening.
Just after midnight, SMUD’s outage map showed about 2,200 customers still without power. At its greatest, approximately 23,000 customers were without electricity, mostly between the Arden-Arcade and Elk Grove areas.
Florin, Citrus Heights, and North Highlands also saw significant outages with dozens more sprinkled all over the Sacramento area. So far, officials have not identified a cause for these widespread outages.
The city of Davis also saw more than 3,300 PG&E customers without power, Tuesday night. According to PG&E's outage map, many of those outages were located near the center of town. Most of the power in Davis was restored by 9 p.m. It is unclear what caused these outages.
These outages are happening as the first rainstorm of the season is moving through Northern California. SMUD has not said what caused these outages.
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