Winds to wreak havoc in Lodi again
Wednesday’s vicious winds and falling trees turned off the lights for some parts of Lodi. By Thursday morning, however, Lodi Electric Utility had returned power to most of the city.
“The first trouble call came in at about a quarter to 5 p.m.,” said LEU Superintendent C.J. Berry. “At the peak of the storm, we experienced approximately 1,500 out.”
With one exception, all of the customers had their power restored by 11 p.m., he said. The lone remaining outage was due to damage to their service from a downed tree, and will take longer to restore.
City spokesman Jeff Hood said that nearly 1,000 customers were affected when the Henning Substation on Ham Lane tripped off and that more than 500 customers lost power due to downed trees and branches.
“We were on top of things pretty quickly,” Hood said.
Hood said that seven trees were downed in local parks, including four at Peterson Park, one of which landed on a house.
A crew on a 30-hour shift was out Thursday still working to clear the trees, Hood said.
Surprisingly, Hood said, there was little damage at Lodi Lake.
The cleanup from the latest storm had both city employees and private businesses hopping on Thursday.
“It’s crazy, we’re going nonstop,” said Larry Kundert with Larry’s Tree Care.
Kundert said he can’t recall so many trees being toppled during one storm, despite many people taking precautions such as having trees trimmed prior to the bad weather.
“We’ve been busy for weeks,” Kundert said.
Public Works Director Charlie Swimley said that the streets division, with assistance from the water/wastewater division, had a number of crews respond to more than 20 tree-related calls. He said that most of the trees were on private property.
Crews will continue to clear the right-of-ways in anticipation for this weekend’s expected rain, Swimley said. The city is asking for community assistance with clearing storm drains due to the volume of debris created by the storm, he added.
If city residents see a blocked storm drain and can safely remove it, Swimley asked that they do that rather than call it in.
“We can’t be everywhere,” Hood said.
Another storm was expected to bring strong winds Thursday. A wind advisory was issued by the National Weather Service, and is expected to remain in place until at least 1 p.m. today.
The area can expect sustained southerly winds of about 30 mph, with 50 mph gusts, the NWS said.
The California Department of Transportation has staff at the ready to respond to any trees blocking roadways or other road hazards.
“I cannot say enough about the work and commitment exhibited by our workers as they respond to emergencies and keep the roads clear,” Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty said in a press release. “Caltrans will continue its dedication towards keeping roadways open and will be working around the clock to help motorists reach their destinations.”
Lodi Electric was prepared to tackle another round of outages Thursday night and today.
“We’ll have resources on standby, should we need to respond to any emergencies,” Berry said.
Around the region
Lodi wasn’t the only local city to lose power. At one point, Woodbridge went dark, as did much of Lockeford.
Around 3,700 homes and businesses lost power in Stockton, in five major outages. Police and fire personnel scrambled to respond to numerous downed trees and power lines throughout Wednesday afternoon and evening.
Gusts in Stockton topped 45 mph.
By around 5 p.m., 21 outages affecting a total of 20,334 Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers. By 9 p.m., that number had doubled to more than 49,000.
“Please stay away from many downed power lines,” SMUD wrote on Twitter.
Wind gusts of up to 56 mph were recorded at the Sacramento International Airport. The worst appeared over by about 9:30 p.m., and SMUD was scrambling to restore power.
Delta residents, especially in Walnut Grove and Rio Linda, also lost power.
Sacramento officials received more than 240 calls about downed trees on Wednesday and Thursday.
The area’s major roadways were also affected by the storm.
California Highway Patrol Officer Charlie Katzakian said the Stockton branch responded to numerous calls of trees down on the road throughout the day.
A tree that fell from a bank next to Highway 99 just north of Lodi slowed northbound traffic for hours.
“Our goal is to clear the road and keep traffic moving,” Katzakian said. “If it’s smaller, we’ll move it ourselves. If we can’t, we’ll get Caltrans or the county out to move it.”