Pacific Gas & Electric said Friday afternoon that it was continuing to work to restore power to customers in the south county, many of whom were reporting being without power for 36 hours or more.
At around 3 p.m. PG&E was reporting a total of 100 outages that was the cause of 9,700 customers in Hidden Valley Lake, Middletown, Clearlake, Lower Lake and Cobb still being without power, according to company spokesman Paul Moreno.
Shortly after 4 p.m. Moreno reported that the number of affected customers had been reduced to 8,000, with power restored to some areas of Clearlake, Lower Lake and Cobb within the previous hour.
The winter storm Thursday had done “significant” damage to power equipment in Lake County, PG&E had previously reported.
As of noon on Friday, PG&E had identified four failed transformers, 44 damaged utility poles and many wires down, Moreno said.
“We do have crews working on several circuits, including some of the large outage,” said Moreno.
Lake County Road Superintendent Steve Stangland said shortly before 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon that downed power lines were the cause of several area road closures, including Anderson Springs at Highway 175, and Golf Road and roadways connected to it in Cobb, which are expected to be closed until Saturday morning.
Stangland said Big Canyon Road in Cobb is closed due to downed poles and power lines from Ettawa Springs Road to the Howard Resort at the top of the ridge, with no estimated time of opening. He said that a Cal Fire hand crew was working in the area to clear downed trees.
In addition, Bottle Rock Road is open to Sulphur Creek Road, where Stangland said PG&E was working on the downed pole and lines.
Stangland said it's estimated that the section from Sulphur Creek Road to Highway 175 will be closed for approximately four more days due to downed trees, power poles and power lines.
Moreno said crews were at work “at a number of sites” around Lake County, with more customers expected to have their power on Friday evening.
A major challenge for repair crews remained getting access to damaged equipment due to the weather and terrain, Moreno said.
Moreno said the company has contracted helicopters doing patrols to identify damaged equipment.
“We were able to fly helicopter patrols today throughout Lake County due to a break in the weather, and that has helped us make assessments so we could continue restoration,” he said.
Sgt. Tim Hobbs of the Clearlake Police Department said PG&E had three helicopters coming and going from a landing zone near the Lake County Fire Protection District on Olympic Drive.
“They've been going in and out of there since yesterday,” he said Friday afternoon.
Moreno said five additional crews, which have between two and four people each, arrived in Lake County on Friday to work on power equipment repairs.
“Dozens of additional line workers have been brought in to support local crews,” he said.
PG&E staff was taking advantage of daylight hours and working 16-hour shifts to get power restored, according to Moreno.
As for county road crews, their work was continuing, too, Stangland said.
On Friday afternoon road crews continued to work to clear the Gifford Springs area, which Stangland estimated would be open by 6 p.m. Friday.
However, he noted late Friday afternoon that snow was falling in Cobb.
He said snow had closed Elk Mountain Road inn Upper Lake from the Middle Creek Campground to Lake Pillsbury, and Bartlett Springs Road at MPM 6.0 also closed because of snowfall.
County road crews are scheduled to start clearing Bartlett Springs Road on Monday before moving on to Elk Mountain Road, Stangland said.
Caltrans reported Friday afternoon that Highway 175 from the junction of Highway 29 to five miles west of Middletown remained closed due to downed trees.
No travel restrictions were listed over Highway 29 – the route over Mount St. Helena had been reopened earlier in the day – and Highway 20 also was reported by Caltrans as open.
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