Update: Hundreds of lightning strikes in Fresno area leave 13,000 without power

Thousands of PG&E customers were without power Wednesday morning as outages were reported across the central San Joaquin Valley as a summer storm blew into the region.

Hundreds of lightning strikes caused damage to PG&E’s electric equipment, triggering the multiple, unexpected outages, according to Tamar Sarkissian, a PG&E spokesperson. Some 13,600 customers were affected.

According to the company’s outage map, there were large clusters of outages just northeast of Sanger and in an area near Parlier, along Reed and Manning avenues running into Reedley and Dinuba.

There were additional outages of 500 to 5,000 customers reported along Highway 180 in Squaw Valley and along Highway 168 from Shepard Avenue north into areas near Tollhouse.

A power line was down on Highway 168 at the Friant-Kern Canal and westbound 168 was closed at Shepherd Avenue east of Clovis.

There were also outages along Highway 41 into Yosemite, including areas near Yosemite Lakes and into Oakhurst and Bass Lake.

Many of these foothill locations are in areas where PG&E has Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings, which are used to cut power for wildfire prevention.

PG&E called this an “all-hands-on-deck event,” and said it has opened its Emergency Operations Center.

As of 11 a.m. it was too early to give estimates when power may be restored, but the company was “working to make repairs and restore power, safely and as quickly as possible,” Sarkissian said.

“We are also working to bring in resources from outside areas to provide additional support.”

The National Weather Service was forecasting isolated strong to severe thunderstorms in the Fresno area until 9 p.m. Wednesday and the area was already seeing its effects.

This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 8:13 AM.