Thousands Lose Power Near Sacramento After Balloons Hit Line

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, CA — Thousands of customers lost power on Christmas Eve just outside Sacramento after balloons hit a transmission line Tuesday morning, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

SMUD first reported the outages shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday, affecting customers in Orangevale, Citrus Heights and Folsom, the utility said. SMUD personnel at the scene worked to restore power, and the utility said power had been restored to all but 100 customers by 9:55 a.m.

The outage affected more than 20,000 customers, according to KCRA.

Power restored to customers in Orangevale-Folsom-Citrus Heights outage. Caused by metallic (Mylar) balloons in high-voltage substation transmission line.
Thanks for your patience. Please always keep your festive balloons tied down :-)
— SMUD (@SMUDUpdates) December 24, 2019