ALPINE, Calif. — There are about 7,200 people without power in places like Alpine and Campo on Thursday night. This comes after power was shut off at thousands of East County homes Thursday morning.
Jeff Lashmet lives in Descanso and Patrick Rhoades lives in Guatay in a mobile home community where all 90 units lost power.
“Went off at 8:30 this morning,” said Rhoades. “Every time we get a high wind, SDG&E turns power off.”
“I’m all for fire safety and if SDG&E was truly that concerned about safety, they would underground their utilities,” said Lashmet.
The safety outages came after a red flag warning kicked in around 5 a.m., but not everyone in the area lost power. A store in Descanso is still open.
Chris Dykema had his power shut off too. He lives in Pine Valley and says the wind was very strong.
“The wind woke us up this morning,” said Dykema. “It was really windy there.”
Classes at the Mountain Empire Unified School District were cancelled.
Lashmet runs a preschool at a church and without any electricity, all the kids had to be sent home.
“Without power, we can’t run it,” said Lashmet. “We lose revenue and the parents are all inconvenienced because now they don’t have anyone taking care of their kids.”
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