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Powerful Wind Hitting Central, South Coasts Leads To Precautionary Power Outages To Prevent Fires

A strong wind event causing some gusts in excess of 80 miles an hour on parts of the Central and South Coasts has prompted some precautionary intentional power outages, and warnings more could come.

There are Red Flag Warnings in place for much of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties for high wildfire danger.  Utility companies had warned more than 140,000 customers Monday that planned outages during the peak of the wind event were a possibility.

As of  Tuesday night, about 30,000 Ventura County Southern California Edison customers were without power.  Among the areas affected were parts of Simi Valley, Moorpark, Fillmore, Ventura, Santa Paula and Piru.  More than 100,000 other customers in the county are on notice for Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

SCE notified about 7500 Santa Barbara County customers in the southern part of the county they may be affected.

On the Central Coast, PG&E implemented precautionary outages because of the wind for some rural areas east of Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, and Santa Maria.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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