Thousands lose power in San Diego's backcountry as Santa Anas begin to blow

Officials at San Diego Gas & Electric have cut the power to thousands of customers in remote East County as high winds began to blow on Monday night, with a red-flag warning not expiring until 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

As of 10:45 p.m. Monday, the utility said, 13,676 members of the backcountry communities had been affected by the public-safety power shutoffs, which are implemented to keep power lines from arcing or throwing off sparks when trees come into contact with the high-power lines.

While that number seems large, it is dwarfed by those who could be in the dark: SDG&E said that an additional 69,949 customers could lose power during this weather event, which is expected to run its course by Tuesday evening.

So far, the shutoffs have occurred in the following communities:

• Alpine
• Boulevard
• Campo
• Campo Reservation
• Descanso
• Jacumba
• Julian
• La Jolla Reservation
• La Posta Reservation
• Los Coyotes Reservation
• Manzanita Reservation
• Mesa Grande Reservation
• Pala
• Palomar Mountain
• Pauma and Yuima Reservation
• Pauma Valley
• Pine Valley
• Potrero
• Ramona
• Ranchita
• San Pasqual Reservation
• Santa Ysabel
• Santa Ysabel Reservation
• Valley Center
• Warner Springs
• Viejas Reservation

A full list of those that might be impacted can be seen by clicking here.

Officials with the National Weather Service said Monday evening that a high-wind warning would be in effect from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

NBC 7’s Greg Bledsoe was forecasting that the winds would pick up Monday evening, then peak overnight into Tuesday morning, with isolated gusts possibly reaching 80 mph.

“This could also be the driest conditions we’ve seen during this string of Santa Ana events,” Bledsoe said. “Relative humidity is expected to drop down below 5% in some places Tuesday afternoon. So, fire danger will be in the ‘extreme’ category for most inland and mountain locations.”

The winds will start to taper off Tuesday night but will be replaced by a fire-weather watch, mainly because of how dry it will be. After a brief break from the winds on Wednesday, Santa Anas will return Thursday, but shouldn’t be as strong as this latest round.

By later this week, chances for rain begin to show up in the weekend forecast. If those bear fruit, it would be the region’s first rain in more than a month.

The high winds and outages are also affecting schools: Five districts announced Monday night that classes had been canceled on Tuesday.