LAKE COUNTY >> It”s been a busy couple of days for PG&E and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) as the first serious rainfall hit the Lake County landscape and saturated the ground.
Just since Tuesday afternoon, PG&E has responded to three downed power lines in the county, two of which were caused by falling vegetation and the other by a woman driving under the influence.
Although more than 1,500 customers temporarily lost power during the three incidents, PG&E spokesperson Brittany McKannay said the results of this storm have presented less of a problem in Lake County than in other areas of PG&E”s service territory.
CHP Watch Commander Bill Holcomb also said he”s responded to at least three incidents in the past two days of telephone poles coming out of the ground as the sudden soaking has loosened the county”s soil.
“I”ve been working for CHP for 30 years and I”ve never seen a telephone pole pop out of the ground like that,” Holcomb said. “But we haven”t had a rain like this in three years and the ground is really moving around.”
McKannay was unable to confirm any PG&E poles coming loose in the county but said the poles Holcomb is speaking of may be owned by other telephone companies.
The line downed by the driver, however, was owned by the company. On Tuesday at about 1:45, an unidentified woman drove off Highway 29 near Lower Lake and hit a telephone pole, breaking it in three places, according to Holcomb.
“No one else was involved, and thank goodness, the wires just snagged down and didn”t go across the highway,” Holcomb said.
The incident was first reported on the scanner as a hit-and-run as a bypasser took the woman to the hospital for minor injuries caused by the airbags. CHP officers later arrested the woman for driving under the influence at the hospital.
Holcomb urged drivers to slow down.
“It”s not so much because the roadways are wet but because we”re getting so many rocks and trees in the road and they”re hard to avoid coming around a corner,” he advised.
