A series of winter storms has caused power outages impacting thousands in PG&E’s North Valley Division, with most customers to be restored Christmas Eve, PG&E said today.

Strong winds and heavy, low-elevation snows have brought down trees and power lines, especially in Shasta and Plumas counties. About 8,000 PG&E customers are without power in 90 separate outages in the North Valley region, with most to be restored by midnight Monday.  Today’s break in the weather should speed up the restoration process.

More than 300 PG&E personnel are working in the North Valley to restore power. This includes crews from other parts of PG&E’s service area and contract electricians brought in to help local crews. PG&E is surveying power lines by helicopter and crews are using snow cats to reach damaged lines in remote areas.

Communities impacted the most include the Shasta County communities of Shingletown, Whitmore, Cedar Creek and O’Brien. In Plumas Counties, the Chester, Prattville, Hamilton Branch and other communities around Lake Almanor are impacted by power outages.

Over 3,000 customers are still without power in the Almanor basin.  Power has been out on the Peninsula since Friday evening.  Chester has been without power since yesterday.  PG&E has no estimate of when power will be restored. 

There are also small outages affecting 6 customers in Greenville and one customer in Meadow Valley.

Click here to see the map of PG&E power outages.