Thousands in the dark due to storm damage along California’s central coast

BEN LOMOND, Calif. — Heavy wind and rain had knocked out power to more than 21,000 homes and businesses in Santa Cruz County, Calif., by Wednesday afternoon.

One area of Ben Lomond, Calif., was without power for more than 36 hours before the lights came back on Wednesday evening.

During the prolonged blackout, which began around 5 a.m. Tuesday, the hum of generators drowned out pounding rain. Residents in the neighborhood off Highway 9
just north of the center of town wondered what had caused such a severe
outage in the flat, suburban-feeling area where past blackouts usually
only lasted a few hours.

Tom Purdy, who moved into his California Drive
home in 1989, broke down and bought the generator he had considered
purchasing during past storms when outages hadn’t lasted nearly this
long.

“It doesn’t bother me, except for the food in the
freezer and the refrigerator,” said Purdy on Wednesday morning,
explaining he had rigged up a car battery for lights and was using the
fireplace to keep at least the living room warm.

Some outages could last for the next couple of days until the Pacific Gas and Electric utility crews are able to restore power across the county, company spokesman Kory Raftery said.

The outages Wednesday afternoon were scattered throughout the county, with 7,600 in Santa Cruz, 4,600 in Watsonville, 3,500 in Boulder Creek, 1,100 in Apto, 1,000 in Ben Lomond, 770 in Felton, 600 in Soquel and 500 in Scotts Valley, Raftery said.

All of the outages are related to the storm — wind
toppling poles and wires, and rain soaking the ground, causing poles
and trees to fall over, Raftery said.

“The downed lines are from a myriad of things,” he
said. “It’s mountainous and wet, and we can’t access all of the areas
with normal trucks and equipment. We have to hike in to some spots.”

PG&E has hired temporary crews in addition to the company’s full work force to help get the power back on, he said.

“We are working around the clock,” Raftery said.

In Ben Lomond, Chris and Linda Kerr, who have lived in their Middle Road home for more than 30 years, couldn’t remember another time the power had been out so long, except after the 1989 earthquake.

But they were hardly troubled. During the blackout,
they had cranked up their 5,000-watt generator when the power went off,
and Wednesday morning had a blaze going in the fireplace. The generator
is enough to power the entire house, except the clothes dryer, Chris Kerr said, adding that he burns about four gallons of gas a day.

The couple said they shut down the generator at 8 p.m.
so the noise doesn’t become too bothersome for neighbors. Tuesday
night, Chris turned on the satellite radio in his truck and the couple
slipped into bed and listened to classic radio programs like the Lone
Ranger on a tiny bedside radio that picked up the signal from the car
radio.

“We can’t complain,” Linda said Wednesday morning. “Actually, I’m enjoying it. It makes us slow down.”

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(c) 2010, Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, Calif.)

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