Power shutoffs commenced Thanksgiving Day in the Santa Clarita Valley, affecting Southern California Edison customers located in the eastern portions of the valley.
The utility had issued warnings of public safety power shutoffs, or PSPS, ahead of the holiday weekend due to high winds and fire danger across the region.
SoCal Edison’s online map of impacted areas indicated parts of Agua Dulce and Canyon Country had their power shut off with an estimated restoration time of 3 p.m. Saturday. Communities impacted include portions of ZIP codes 91321, 91390, 93510, 91351 and 91387.
A community crew vehicle was made available for those affected from noon to 10 p.m. on Thursday at 33201 Agua Dulce Canyon Road to provide power shutoff information, light snacks, water, small resiliency devices and personal protective equipment.
SCV Sheriff’s Station officials took to social media to communicate with residents about the potential outages.
“Please have a safety plan in place if your power is shut off,” read the statement.
The holiday power shutoffs in the SCV were part of an estimated 1,985 others across Los Angeles County, according to the utility’s website. Nearly 3,015 in Ventura County also had outages. More than 106,600 across six southern California counties faced potential power shutoffs on Thanksgiving, and that number had been halved by early Friday afternoon.
The warnings come as the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning to take effect from 2 p.m. Thursday to 6 p.m. Saturday and a high wind advisory from 7 a.m. Thursday through 3 p.m. Friday for much of L.A. and Ventura counties “due to gusty northeast winds and low relative humidity,” prompting SCE to warn residents of possible shutoffs.
Taelor Bakewell, a spokeswoman for SoCal Edison, said that if the weather event ended as predicted on Friday, that they would begin taking more people off of the consideration list for power shutoffs, and would restore power within 24 hours for those who had been de-energized
“As we get more information about the weather and dry fuel conditions, we will change our numbers accordingly,” said Bakewell. “We’re making every effort to reduce the number and length of needed shutoffs.”
Moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds developed Wednesday night and peaked Thursday night through Friday morning before being expected to weaken heading into the weekend.
To check the status of an update, utility customers can sign up to receive alerts via sce.com/wildfire/psps-alerts or call 1-800-655-4555.
