Southern California Edison preemptively cut electric service to customers in the Banning Pass area due to wildfire concerns Wednesday morning and was considering more outages in the Cabazon and Morongo Valley areas.
The outages extend into the San Jacinto Mountains toward Idyllwild and Pine Cove.
There were several outage areas along Highway 243, according to the SCE Outage Map web page . The utility takes the cut-off action when wind conditions endanger public safety by creating concerns transmission lines and other equipment might spark a wildfire.
Numerous California wildfires, including the Ventura and Santa Barbara County Thomas Fire in 2017, have been traced back to utility equipment as causes.
Areas on the map with black lines denote current outage areas. Orange-shaded areas could also experience shut-offs if wind conditions warrant.
Outage areas included Idyllwild, Burn Valley, Pine Cove, Fern Valley, and Mountain Center.
More than 2,100 Edison customers were without power in Riverside County Wednesday morning.