UPDATED: No Timetable for Restored Power in Hard-Hit Santa Cruz County

Update, 10:30 p.m. Thursday: Freedom Boulevard remained blacked out Thursday night, Watsonville Police Sgt. Henry Robles reported

"But there’s tons of PG&E” working on it, Robles said.

Electricity has been restored to the East Lake Avenue corridor, the sergeant noted.

The PG&E outage map on its website indicated there were 11 separate outages Thursday night, affecting less than 500 customers in total. Thousands of PG&E users in Watsonville were without power earlier in the day.

Update, 5:15 p.m. Thursday: Power outages are causing heavy traffic at Freedom Boulevard and Green Valley Road, where signal lights are no longer working, Watsonville police reported.

Traffic there is already heavy and motorists should stay out of the area if possible.

It's unknown when power will be restored.

Much of the east side of Watsonville has been in the dark the entire day. , on Freedom at Martinelli, was closed Wednesday due to the outage and closed early.

Storm-caused blackouts affected other areas of the city and surrounding countryside as well. stayed on air thanks to a diesel-powered generator, a deejay announced in the afternoon, joking that listeners should drop off cans of fuel to keep the station broadcasting.

PG&E customers can either report an outage or get automated outage information by calling 1-800-743-5002. To report a downed power line, call 1-800-743-5000.

Original story, 10:25 a.m. Thursday: Gusty winds in the Bay Area overnight have left tens of thousands without power, including 22,670 in Santa Cruz County, the hardest hit area.

“Santa Cruz County got a lot of very strong winds and with all of the vegetation in the area, it was the hardest hit area in our service area,” PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian told Patch. “As hard as we work year around doing vegetation management, it is just a very lush area.”

Sarkissian said PG&E spends $180 million a year in vegetation management to prevent outages from happening due to wind and storms but sometimes it is beyond PG&E’s control.

Along with all of the outages in the county, pge.com estimates thousands of customers in Watsonville city limits are without power and hundreds more in the outlying rural areas remain in the dark. regarding driving conditions becasue the blackouts affected traffic signals.

Sarkissian said it is still too early to say when customers can expect the power back on.

“We are working very hard and are using all our resources. It is all hands on deck,” she said. “All our crews are working as quickly and as safely as possible.”

Other agencies are also responding to the windy conditions, including CAL FIRE, which according to an official statement, "increased staffing on fire engines, hand crews and bulldozers," as high winds greatly increase fire danger. In Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties alone on Wednesday afternoon and evening, CAL FIRE successfully responded to 25 weather-related incidents. 

Santa Cruz CHP responded to 90 weather-related traffic hazards in that time period, and as of Thursday morning, a CHP statement said they had already received over 50 wind-related calls. 

"Be sure to give driving 100 percent of your attention," Santa Cruz CHP Capt. Matt Olson said. "If you are making the mistake of driving while distracted or speeding and a tree or debris falls in front of your vehicle, you won’t be able to react and avoid a collision.”

Have photos of storm damage or tales of power outage woes? Send them to Watsonville Patch Editor Jennifer Squires at jennifer.squires@patch.com.