Power outages drag on two days after Sacramento storm toppled trees, downed SMUD lines
Several Sacramento neighborhoods are still experiencing electricity outages more than two days after a New Year’s Eve storm topped trees and downed power lines.
About 2,000 homes and businesses served by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District were still without power as of Tuesday morning, with Land Park having one of the highest concentrations of outages. That’s down from 5,600 customers mid-day Monday.
Other communities that were greatly affected include North Sacramento, Oak Park and central city areas of Sacramento.
“There are still some homes and businesses within our boundaries without electricity,” said Anthony Jackson, president of the South Land Park Neighborhood Association. “It is our understanding that downed trees from the recent storm caused these outages.”
Wishing SMUD crews the best of luck in restoring service. Much of South Land Park is still without power.#poweroutage #Sacramento https://t.co/B5Fgtr7mY1
— South Land Park (@SoLandParkAssn) January 1, 2023
Jackson said the association is boxed in with Sutterville Road to the north, Freeport Boulevard to the east, Interstate Highway 5 to the west and Florin Road to the south. One of the main goals of the organization, he said, is to keep everyone updated as information becomes available. SLPNA sends out notifications on their social platforms or reshares information by retweeting, for example.
“(My aunt’s) power did not come back on until Monday morning, I believe it was at 3 a.m.,” Jackson said. “We had concerns about keeping her warm, keeping her safe. She’s in her late 60s.”
Jackson’s aunt, who also lives in South Land Park, lost power Saturday night at 7 p.m.
According to Gamaliel Ortiz, a SMUD spokesman, over 120 trees have been cleared since the storm as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. He said that SMUD is focused on restoring power to its customers and community members.
After storms, he said SMUD arborists only clear only limbs and branches to safely access and restore power. They do not remove entire trees unless necessary.
Multiple roads in Land Park, residential and metropolitan, remain closed to due tree blockage and damage.
Fallen trees block Sacramento roads
Todd Ferrara sat down to dinner with his family about 7:45 p.m. on Saturday when they heard what he said sounded like a train coming through the house.
Instead of a locomotive, it was a Himalayan cedar in his front yard that. It flattened his son’s 2012 GMC Acadia and caused damage to his gutters.
It has blocked his street, 7th Avenue in Land Park, since New Year’s Eve.
“It’d be great if the city was able to put up some detour signs at 17th and 19th,” Ferrara said. “But, that hasn’t happened yet.”
He called Joe Benassini, a former urban forester for the city of Sacramento. Benassini said the tree fell because of soil failure. If heavy winds blow during or after a heavy rain that saturated the dirt, the soil often gives and causes trees to fall.
Ferrara said he has not seen any SMUD trucks out on the street, but the city has been very helpful and confirmed his house is a priority for tree removal. Land Park residents on social media have said 7th and 8th avenues are among the streets with persistent outages.
“(The city) also said that they had many other priorities in the city,” Ferrara said. “If you’ve done a drive through the neighborhood, it’s apparent we’re not the only ones that are facing this sort of cleanup.”
Outages persist for select neighborhoods
Sutterville Road along Land Park was closed Monday afternoon due to SMUD repairs.
Line foreman Alfonso Davila said the repairs had to be done after a large tree fell during a storm and damaged a utility pole and 10 to 12 cross arms. A cross-arm holds the wires up on a pole and is often where a transformer sits.
He has been working on Sutterville Road repairs since 8 p.m. Sunday night without stopping.
Davila said that because of how the main line was set up, some surrounding neighborhoods still had power.
“There’s about three or four taps that feed the customers off the main line,” Davila said.
Don Van Dyke, 68, was one of the Land Park residents who had power despite the damage on Sutterville Road. He lost power for a few hours Saturday night. Since then, has had power without interruption. His house is roughly a block away from where SMUD is fixing the main line.
A 76 gas station on the corner of Sutterville Road and Del Rio Road, down the street from where the SMUD workers conducted repairs, was less fortunate. It was closed due to lack of power as of noon on Monday.
