LUCERNE – A vehicle crashing into a power pole left thousands of customers without power for much of the morning on Tuesday as Pacific Gas and Electric staff worked to repair the damage.
PG&E reported that the outage occurred just after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A loud crash was heard through town as the vehicle collided with the pole. In some areas of town, the lights blinked off, came back on and then went out again.
Northshore Fire and the Lake County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash area, located on the east side of Highway 20 between 10th and 11th avenues. No injuries were reported.
Shortly before 2 a.m., sheriff's deputies were blocking the eastbound lane and directing traffic around the crash scene and the damaged pole.
For several hours officials diverted traffic through the middle turn lane while PG&E repaired the pole, the crossarms of which appeared to require replacement.
Highway 20 wasn't completely reopened until about 12:35 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. Even then, 10th Avenue was still closed due to pole repairs.
PG&E spokesperson Brandi Ehlers said 3,233 customers were impacted.
Power returned to some areas of town at around 2:30 a.m., with residents in other areas reporting that their power was off until 11 a.m. Ehlers said power was restored to all customers shortly after 1:30 p.m., 12 hours after the outage first occurred.
PG&E staff remained on scene until evening as they continued restoring the damaged power pole.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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