Winds hammer Fresno area, causing outages as trees and power lines topple

UPDATE: Power outage around Fresno State expected to remain all day, PG&E says. Winds to calm

9:20 p.m.: Some residents near the Fresno State campus still were without power, in the dark for the past four hours and going.

The outage has affected 2,324 customers since 5:24 p.m. and stemmed from the windy conditions, according to PG&E.

There remains no estimated time when the power would return.

A new power outage popped up just before 9 p.m. in Clovis, near Temperance and Herndon avenues. There were 2,748 customers impacted.

Clovis Community Hospital, which is located at the northeast corner of the intersection, confirmed it was still up and running.

8 p.m.: The National Weather Forecast in Hanford said wind gusts reached as strong as 53 mph in Fresno.

Winds also were 40 mph in Merced and 55 mph on Pacheco Pass.

The potentially damaging winds are expected to continue through midnight into Wednesday afternoon.

7:30 p.m.: A tree fell on a woman who was pushing a stroller Tuesday night.

Clovis Police said the incident happened around Villa and Shaw avenues.

Police said the woman was on a walk with two children, including with one child in a stroller, when she heard a cracking noise and soon after was hit by a tree.

The woman suffered a broken arm and was transported to a local hospital.

Neither of the children were injured.

Emergency crews have been dealing with calls for downed trees and power lines throughout the evening after many were knocked over by the powerful winds that have gust into the central San Joaquin Valley.

Original story: Thousands of Fresno-area residents were without power Tuesday evening due to windy conditions that swept into the region around 5 p.m.

According to the PG&E outage map, roughly 15,000 customers in Fresno were dealing with outage issues, including 2,913 in the Tower District and 2,800 near River Park.

PG&E has indicated that the sudden change of weather, including strong winds, was the cause of the problems.

PG&E as of 6:30 p.m. did not have an estimated restoration time for power in many of the areas around Fresno.

In addition to the Tower District and the area just north of the River Park Shopping Center being without power, these areas also were significantly impacted:

• Grantland and Shaw avenues — out since 4:53 p.m. and affecting 3,533 customers (based on latest information available at 6:30 p.m.)

• Maroa and McKinley — out since 5:05 p.m and affecting 2,457

• Cedar and Ashlan — out since 5:15 p.m. and affecting 924

• Cedar and Bullard — out sice 5:24 p.m. and affecting 2,324

• Cedar and Belmont — out since 5:25 p.m. and affecting 3,081
  
  

• Area between Manning Avenue and Mountain View Avenue, east of Highway 41 — out since 6:35 p.m. and affecting 529

In addition to downed power line, trees around the area were knocked down because of the gusty conditions.

The Clovis Police Department said around 7 p.m. it received over one dozen calls for service regarding trees down in roads and power lines that had been hit by trees, and other public hazards.

Fresno Fire said it has been responding to downed power lines and downed trees, as well as vehicle accidents, throughout Tuesday evening.

Near Fresno State, a large tree fell on top of a road that was on the Cedar Avenue near Bulldog Lane.

A large tree also fell on the roadway of Nees Avenue near First Street.

Fresno Fire said there even was a situation involving people stuck in an elevator due to the power outage.