Update: 5,800 PG&E customers still without power in Fresno area. Restoring it ‘may take some time’

THURSDAY UPDATE: PG&E restores power to majority affected by storm

UPDATE: PG&E said 5,800 PG&E customers remain without power as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

ORIGINAL: Many PG&E customers in the Fresno area remained without power Wednesday afternoon following a summer store that rolled through the region with accompanying high winds.

Hundreds of dry lightning strikes Wednesday morning caused damage to PG&E’s electric equipment, triggering the multiple, unexpected outages, according to Tamar Sarkissian, a PG&E spokesperson.

Approximately 7,200 customers were without power as of 5 p.m.

Sarkissian said at the peak earlier Wednesday, 13,600 customers were affected.

According to the company’s outage map, there were large clusters of outages — primarily to the north of Sanger and east of Clovis, and then along Highway 168 into the Fresno County foothills.

It was not known when power would be restored to many.

“Because of the high number of small outages, it is difficult to provide an overall estimated time of restoration, as it will vary for each customer. However, we will likely work through the night, and will continue until every customer is restored,” Sarkissian said.

Heat contributed to the situation as the temperature was 99 degrees at 5 p.m. causing a problem for those without air conditioning.

PG&E said crews were at scenes to restore power “safely as quickly as possible.”

“Our focus is on restoring power to our customers,” Sarkissian said. “This is all hands-on-deck event, and we have opened our Operations Emergency Center to ensure we are aligned and coordinated in our efforts. We will continue to work until every customer has their power back on.”