Modesto and Turlock irrigation district crews were busy Sunday afternoon trying to restore power to thousands of customers as high winds and wet soil combined to topple trees and bring down utility poles and lines.
“Wind is causing big problems. Currently working 8 separate calls of power lines down and/or trees here in Stanislaus Co,” California Highway Patrol Modesto area spokesman Officer Tom Olsen said in a text message at about 4:40 p.m.
“We have a mess” on Highway 132, he added. Forty-one phone-line poles are down. There’s no threat to the public, Olsen said, but 132 is closed between Wellsford and Geer/Albers roads, with no estimated time for it to reopen. Caltrans was on its way to the scene.
MID’s interactive, live map of outage reports showed several large power failures, the largest in west Modesto, affecting about 1,700 customers. It was reported just after 3 p.m., the map’s incident summary says. The affected area is south of California Avenue from the Sutter Avenue area on the east to west of South Hart Road. As of 3:50 p.m., there was no estimated time of power restoration.