Thousands without power after series of PG&E outages in Fresno’s Tower District, Reedley

The wet weather caused series of outages on Wednesday has left left thousands of PG&E customers without power in Fresno and Reedley.

Power has been off since 7:25 a.m. for some 3,000 customers in Fresno, in an area running from West Ashlan Avenue south to Highway 180 and East McKinley Avenue to North Blackstone Avenue.

In Reedley, 1,900 PG&E customers are without power, including in the downtown area. The outage runs from Reedley College to Avenue 424 and from the Kings River to Buttonwillow Avenue in some areas. That outage also started around 7:30 a.m.

PG&E expects to have power to all customers restored before noon, but many may see power return before that as crews isolate down to just the damaged section, PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles said around 9:30 a.m.

Dust, debris and rain caused outages

The outages are being attributed to flashover, which happens when accumulated dust and debris builds up on electrical equipment and “essentially becomes conductive mud when the first rain occurs,” Boyles said.

“It happens more often when the first rain is light rather than heavy, which tends to wash the debris off before mud can form.”

PG&E washes transmission circuits and as many other circuits as possible and did extra washing this year because of the area’s wildfires.

“If you saw the ash falling on your car, it was also falling on our equipment,” Boyles said.

Scattered showers expected for midweek

Following a Tuesday that was unseasonably warm (87 degrees in Bakersfield), a storm system brought showers into the area Wednesday morning. While the Fresno area saw light rain, the the airport at Merced recorded more than a half-inch, according to the National Weather Service.

There could be some additional scattered showers in the the area throughout the day, mainly over the Sierra, which could get as much as 6-12 inches of snowfall accumulation in the higher elevations.

A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect above 7,000 feet through 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Dry conditions are expected to return as the system lifts Wednesday evening.

This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 9:17 AM.