Power restored to PG&E customers in Santa Cruz Mountains affected by outages

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION)

UPDATE 8/5/2021 4:30 p.m. It appears that power has been restored to the more than 5,000 PG&E customers in the Santa Cruz Mountains affected by power outages Thursday based on PG&E's outage map.

The utility reports that an outage in the Ben Lomond area was caused by a tree that fell into electrical equipment, but the cause of another outage in Santa Cruz County is still under investigation.

UPDATE 8/5/2021 3:30 p.m. PG&E reports that a power outage in the Santa Cruz Mountains has been reduced.

The utility reports that an outage in the Ben Lomond area affected a total of 2,194 customers and that it was caused by a tree that fell into electrical equipment.

Another outage in Santa Cruz County has been reduced to 800 customers from 2,310. It started at around 6:30 a.m., and PG&E said the cause is still under investigation.

UPDATE 8/5/2021 1:18 p.m. Some PG&E customers in the Santa Cruz Mountains are beginning to see power restored.

An outage affecting 5,200 customers was reported Thursday morning, and now PG&E reports that about 1,300 customers are without power.

In the Ben Lomond and Brookdale area, the estimated time of restoration is 4 p.m., and power is expected to be restored at 9 p.m. for customers in the Highway 17 corridor.

PREVIOUS STORY: Pacific Gas and Electric reports that more than 5,200 customers are without power in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The outages are affecting the areas around Ben Lomond, Brookdale, Scotts Valley and the Highway 17 corridor.

PG&E reports that some of the outages started at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, but the rest started at around 6:30 a.m. Thursday.

The estimated restoration time is currently set at 9 p.m. The cause of the outages is still under investigation.

There are also power outages in the Soledad area, and police say the outages there are due to at least 7 blown transformers.