Power outage for some customers in Southern California due to high winds and fire hazards

Southern California Edison began widespread power outages for customers Wednesday morning after the National Weather Service issued a warning of a “particularly dangerous situation” due to strong Santa Ana winds.

As of 7 a.m., the utility had already disconnected 13,800 customers in the four counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura, with the number expected to rise as winds increase throughout the morning.

Two public schools in San Bernardino are without power, Paakuma’ K-8 School and Kimbark Elementary School. Both schools said on social media that they would remain open during the power outages.

“Our teams will be working this morning to restore our office phones and internet via a generator. Classrooms and restrooms all have skylights for natural light, and daytime temperatures are mild enough to avoid heat issues.”

The San Bernardino Unified School District said Kimbark Elementary will also remain open. “Kimbark ES. Operations and support departments will work to support the school throughout the outage.”

SCE previously said more than 55,000 customers could have their power turned off, while 1,113 customers already had planned outages as of 10 p.m. Tuesday. At this point, 2,230 customers’ electricity had already been switched off.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also announced the possibility of outages, saying planned shutdowns could be implemented and accidental power outages could also occur if power lines were downed by high winds.

The strongest winds will blow Wednesday morning, but the fire threat and strong winds will remain through Thursday afternoon.

The PDS warning is in effect Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, the valleys of central and southeastern Ventura County, and the inland coast of Ventura County to beaches from Malibu to Oxnard.

An additional PDS Red Flag Warning is in effect from 9 a.m. Wednesday through 9 a.m. Thursday for the southern mountains of Ventura County, as well as the San Gabriel, Santa Susana and Santa Monica mountains.

Santa Ana winds will be particularly strong and widespread in portions of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, with the strongest and potentially most damaging gusts expected to be up to 60 to 80 mph in the mountains and foothills of the counties Wednesday morning through Wednesday evening said meteorologists. Isolated gusts of 80 to 100 mph are expected in some of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Meanwhile, coastal Malibu and the coastal plain of Ventura County, as well as other coastal and valley areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, could experience gusts between 50 and 70 mph, NWS said. Humidity in these areas is expected to drop to 8 to 15 percent, and conditions are expected to continue through Thursday and Friday, forecasters said.

Before 7 a.m. Wednesday, Freemont Canyon in the Santa Ana’s had wind gusts of 77 mph, the Malibu Hills had gusts of 76 mph and south of the 10 Freeway, near Beaumont, gusts reached 51 mph per hour. In Simi Valley, gusts reached 64 miles per hour Wednesday morning.