201911.30
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Thousands without electricity on freezing night in San Bernardino Mountains; firewood distributed

by in News

Thousands of residents of the San Bernardino Mountains faced a night without electricity amid a forecast of subfreezing temperatures because of a widespread power outage Saturday, Nov. 30. The affected areas included Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, Twin Peaks, Running Springs and Green Valley Lake, said Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Griffo.

Edison purchased four cords of firewood, Griffo said, and the San Bernardino County Fire Department distributed the wood to residents at the Crestline Chamber of Commerce at 24385 Lake Drive.

“Supplies are limited. We encourage affected residents to only take what is needed to get through the night,” a Fire Department  Facebook post said. “Depending on the status of power restoration, additional firewood may be made available (Sunday) for customers who remain impacted by the storm outage.”

The forecast for the area, which is approximately at 5,400 feet elevation, was for an overnight low of 29 degrees. Sunday’s forecast was for a high of 43 and a low of 38.

Elsewhere, freezing rain and light snow were possible for the 5 Freeway in the Grapevine northwest of Los Angeles on Saturday night before a warming trend, the National Weather Service said. A storm that could drop rain in the valleys and snow on the higher elevations in Southern California was expected to begin Tuesday evening.

The San Bernardino Mountains outage, which Edison attributed to snow and strong winds causing trees to topple and knock down power lines, began Friday, affecting 24,600 customers. By 2 p.m. Saturday, that number was down to 7,500 customers. But at 5:30 p.m., that figure had increased to 10,300.

“Due to the significant snowfall that has caused some road closures and additional access issues in the Arrowhead area, damage assessment and repairs are ongoing and we do not expect to have all customers restored overnight,” Edison said on its major outage website. Some 100 employees were attempting to get the lights back on, Edison said.

Roads covered by snow and ice and others that were closed entirely were slowing the response to the outage, Edison said.

Other Edison outages in the region were reported in Idyllwild, Redlands, Mentone, Forest Falls, Temescal Valley and the Antelope Valley.

Some residents of Temescal Valley lost electricity for 18 hours over Friday and Saturday after a vehicle hit a power pole on Lake Street in Lake Elsinore. Temescal Valley is served by only one transmission line, and that’s the one that was knocked out. Edison plans to begin construction on a 27-mile-long line from Menifee that will run through Perris, Lake Elsinore and into Temescal Valley starting next summer.

Mountain roads remained difficult to traverse on Saturday.

In the San Bernardino Mountains,  Highway 38 was closed from the Mill Creek Ranger Station to Hatchery Drive in Big Bear to all but residents with identification. Chains were required on all vehicles with no exceptions from Hatchery Drive to Big Bear Dam, Caltrans said.

Highway 330 was closed from 3 miles north of San Bernardino. Chains were required with no exceptions from the upper passing lane to Highway 18.

Highway 18 motorists were required to have chains except on 4-wheel-drive vehicles with snow tires on all four wheels from Upper Waterman Canyon to Heaps Peak Dump, and from Big Bear Dam to the Mitsubishi plant. All vehicles were required to have chains from Heaps Peak Dump to Big Bear Dam.

Also, Angeles Crest Highway was closed at 6,000 feet (mile post 54.22). But all lanes of the eastbound 10 Freeway at 6th Street in Redlands were open Saturday after repairs were completed for a sinkhole on the shoulder caused by a drain that collapsed on Thanksgiving.

Precipitation is expected in Southern California after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, becoming heaviest about 11 p.m. The precipitation should continue into Wednesday morning. A slight chance of rain is forecast for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The storm will be warmer than the previous two, the weather service said, with much less snow accumulation expected. High temperatures in the mid- to high-60s are expected in the coming week.

“Consensus of rainfall amounts is around 1/2 to 1 inch at the coast, with some of the valleys and higher coastal terrain likely in the 1-2 inch range,” the NWS forecast discussion said.

Updates on road conditions are available on Caltrans’ Twitter feeds and at the Caltrans website at roads.dot.ca.gov.