Thousands Without Power In San Diego County Due To Strong Winds

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – The American Red Cross opened two emergency shelters Thursday morning for thousands of residents impacted by power outages across San Diego County.

As winds picked up across the region, San Diego Gas & Electric began shutting off power Wednesday night due to critical fire conditions, initially affecting more than 1,000 customers in multiple communities. By 8:30 a.m. Thursday, SDG&E reported more than 5,000 customers were without power.

As of 11 a.m., nearly 11,400 customers were without power across the county, according to the SDG&E outage map.

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Most outages are due to the utility cutting power for safety reasons, while other outages have been caused by trees hitting equipment, according to the outage map. SDG&E is assessing multiple other outages to determine the causes.

Affected communities include Alpine, Borrego Springs, Descanso, Julian, La Mesa, Pala, Rainbow, Ramona, Santa Ysabel and Valley Center, among many others.

Shelters for residents impacted by the outages opened at 9 a.m. in El Cajon and Escondido.

Shelter locations:

• Bostonia Park & Recreation Center, 1049 Bostonia Street, El Cajon
• East Valley Community Center, 2245 E. Valley Parkway, Escondido

Image via SDG&E/Google Maps