Outages update.

LOS ANGELES — More than a million Californians remained without power Thursday after the state’s largest utility shut off electricity in an attempt to prevent windblown power lines from sparking devastating wildfires.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. began cutting power to customers shortly after midnight Wednesday and continued through early Thursday. By sunrise, 600,000 customers were without electricity. That number was less than the projected 800,000 the utility had anticipated would lose power in the widespread outage.

The second round of outages, affecting 234,000 customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, were expected to occur by noon Wednesday but were delayed several hours, leaving anxious locals in limbo.

Residents had already rushed to empty store shelves looking for batteries and water and had lined up for gas to prepare for the looming outage. They did laundry, ran dishwashers and vacuumed, fearful they would not have power for several days. Some stuffed refrigerators and freezers with ice so they would stay colder longer. Others emptied food into coolers.

But their lights stayed on, while their frustrations mounted.

The steady alerts that power would be shut off at specific times — only to have it remain on — proved more unnerving than the actual loss of electricity for some.

Mary Carey, a lawyer who lives in a wooded East Bay community, compared the situation to knowing a “meteorite is on the way, but it won’t hit for 12 hours.”

Kevin Marker, 66, a retired businessman, had another take: “I think PG&E is just getting back at people.”

By Thursday morning, the utility had finally turned off power to customers in Alameda, Alpine, Contra Costa, Mariposa, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties.

They also had restored power to about 125,000 customers across the state, including 74,000 in Humboldt County. Still, they warned more areas could see blackouts, depending on weather conditions. The utility is still considering cutting off about 4,000 customers in the southern portion of its coverage area in Kern County.

Fierce winds blew through several counties in Northern California on Thursday, the kind of gusts that bend treetops and cause cars to swerve.

The wind was so strong that the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for much of the region, cautioning residents to expect northerly winds between 15 and 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph, and very low daytime humidity. The warning is in effect through Friday.