{"id":486666,"date":"2026-10-06T07:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486666\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T07:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:44:08","slug":"california-outage-leaves-2800-in-the-dark-closes-3-san-diego-county-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486666\/","title":{"rendered":"California outage leaves 2,800 in the dark, closes 3 San Diego County schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to KGTV<\/a>, more than 2,800 San Diego Gas & Electric customers were without power last Friday, forcing three Ramona Unified School District campuses to close in California. Meanwhile, the unusually hot conditions were expected to continue into mid-October.<\/p>\n

SDG&E’s outage map listed the cause as “unknown and still under investigation.”<\/p>\n

Here’s what to know<\/p>\n

According to KGTV, the outage forced the closure of Ramona High School, Olive Peirce Middle School, and Ramona Community Campus.<\/p>\n

SDG&E said the outage was unplanned and not considered a Public Safety Power Shutoff. Planned shutoffs are used to reduce wildfire risk during dangerous weather like heat waves.<\/p>\n

The utility also warned that shutoffs could still affect up to 35,000 customers during the period from Oct. 2 at 5 a.m. to Oct. 5 at 6 p.m., KGTV reported.<\/p>\n

Why does it matter?<\/p>\n

When power outages coincide with heat waves, the situation can have public safety implications.<\/p>\n

According to researchers at Yale University<\/a>, air conditioning saves over 5,000 lives per year in the United States alone. They also found that air conditioning reduced heat-attributed mortality by 57%.<\/p>\n

The study’s findings highlighted that, in hot climates, air conditioning is a public health necessity.<\/p>\n

When households lose access to electricity during heatwaves, the situation can quickly become life-threatening.<\/p>\n

For homeowners that can afford it, installing home solar combined with a home battery can significantly reduce reliance on grid power. Especially when paired with an energy-efficient heat pump<\/a> HVAC, these systems can even reduce energy costs.<\/p>\n

Where can I learn more?<\/p>\n

Outages like the one in Ramona are happening across the country and making people think about how the environment and public health intersect.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Across northern California, wildfire fears put thousands<\/a> at risk of preventive blackouts.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In San Diego County, California, officials have warned residents about battery fires and toxic runoff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 New research shows extreme heat and storms<\/a> can prolong outages in vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As outages worsen, Generac and rivals are pushing backup generator, battery, and solar<\/a> systems.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In Hawai’i, officials said impending mass power outages<\/a> could accompany a severe weather emergency.<\/p>\n

Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to KGTV, more than 2,800 San Diego Gas & Electric customers were without power last Friday, forcing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-486666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}