LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The lights went back on Sunday morning for residents of an area of southern Lake County which had been without power since the previous night.

Power had been off for 816 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customer accounts in and around Hidden Valley Lake and Spruce Grove Road beginning at 5:30 p.m.

PG&E said the power was restored at approximately 8:49 a.m. Sunday.

That was more than 12 hours earlier than the company had anticipated being able to restore power. On its website on Saturday night, PG&E said power might not be restored until 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

A company official said they were sending out a helicopter on Sunday morning to look for the cause of the outage due to crews not being able to walk the terrain.

PG&E did not immediately report the outage’s cause.

The outage was of special concern, coming in the midst of another heat wave, with temperatures topping 100 degrees and no county facilities open on Sunday where community members could cool off.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.