Residents in California preparing for power shut-offs that could affect more than 700,000 customers are lining up at gas stations to fill their cars and buying generators, flashlights, ice chests and non-perishable food.
Jennifer Siemens lives in Oroville and says she is bracing for a third blackout in a month. She lost power twice after Pacific Gas and Electric cut power to thousands of customers to prevent its equipment from starting wildfires during warm, windy weather.
Siemens says she is making sure they have bottled water, flashlights and all their electric devices fully charged.
She lost her home in Paradise, a town decimated last year by a fire that killed 85 people. The Nov. 8 blaze was started by PG&E power lines.
Siemens says the outages are hard on her family because it scares their children, who were traumatized during the massive Paradise blaze, and affects their cleaning business.
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10 a.m.
With windy, dry weather in the forecast, California utilities are considering shutting off power to more than 700,000 customers to try to prevent wildfires ignited by electrical equipment.
Southern California Edison's website showed Tuesday that more than 106,000 customers in parts of eight counties could face power cuts.
That's in addition to the more than 600,000 customers that Pacific Gas & Electric announced a day earlier could be affected.
The largest numbers of potentially affected SoCal Edison customers are in Los Angeles County and to the east in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Also under consideration are areas to the west in Ventura County and to the north in Kern, Tulare, Inyo and Mono counties.
On Monday, Pacific Gas & Electric announced possible blackouts in 30 northern and central counties starting Wednesday.