Strong winds knock down 8 power poles in Woodland; Hundreds remain without power

© Provided by KCRA Sacramento Cleaning up storm damage

Several hundred people in Woodland remained without power Wednesday afternoon, a day after strong winds snapped eight wooden utility poles along a street in the Yolo County community, police said.

Woodland police said they first got reports of a cracked power pole around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Officers arrived to the area of East Street near Pendegast Street minutes later and saw a few poles in the street, as well as the powerlines attached to them.

The downed lines caused power outages in the neighborhood, including a shopping complex. Carlos Rodiguez lives in the neighborhood and said Tuesday night that he was prepared for the outages.

"My plan now is to bring out the candles and light them up when it gets dark and just take it from there, you know. I’m not too worried about it," Rodriguez said. "I got some rechargeable batteries and stuff."

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. crews worked for several hours into the night to clean up the mess and restore power to the area.

Woodland police said Wednesday afternoon that 325 customers remained without power, down from a high of 2,359.

PG&E told KCRA 3 it expects to have power restored to those remaining customers "by 10 p.m. Thursday if not sooner."

The remaining customers may have to wait until Friday to get their power restored, the city said.

Essential businesses like the Woodland Pharmacy located feet away from the damage on East Street made a last-minute decision to salvage important products.

"We were really lucky that it happened late in the day but we do have medications in the refrigerator and in the freezer, so we had to unpack all of those, put them in the ice chest, take them home, and put them in the fridge," said pharmacist, Cynthia Carter.

The latest windstorm in Woodland brought up the number of impacted residents in Yolo County to an estimated 25,000, with most being in the Walnut Grove and Isleton area.

As California experiences storm after storm, PG&E crews are working around the clock to restore electricity to more than 100,000 customers across the state.

"We've had historic snow levels and snow at elevations very deep snow, we normally don't get much snow, flooding and very harsh storms coming off the Pacific Ocean into the Bay Area and Central Coast," said Paul Moreno, a spokesperson for PG&E

PG&E personnel are working 16-hour shifts and are also working with contractors in Southern California and the Central Coast to help in areas with the most damage.

Related Video Below | KCRA 3 Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan explains why the damage in Woodland was likely not caused by a tornado but instead by straight line winds.

Some trees in Woodland also fell because of the strong winds. One tree fell on top of two cars at East Street and Gum Avenue. However, there were no reports of anyone getting hurt by the downed trees or fallen power poles. Still, some were worried when the worst of the weather came through the area.

"It's kind of concerning because you got four of five poles in a row that could have caused some serious damage to somebody," said Daniel Melnik, who came to the area during the storm to check on his wife who works at a nearby hospital.

Tuesday's weather event was the latest storm system to hit Northern California in the past several weeks. Woodland residents KCRA 3 spoke with said they are fed up with the conditions.

"I'm tired of it. I’m not a big fan of the rain, so I'm just waiting for it to end," Rodriguez said.

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