ALPINE, Calif. (KGTV) — Residents in Alpine anticipated rain from Friday's storms but not the wind.
The homeowner of a house off Willows Road says branches from a nearby tree fell all around her home. Part of that same tree fell onto a nearby power line, causing the power to be out for a few minutes.
And she's not the only one feeling the effects of the storm.
The Sheriff's Department in Alpine shared in a tweet that the winds were racing through the area, advising drivers to be cautious on the roads. Crews with San Diego County also shared a tweet of them removing limbs from a tree in Alpine, that presented a hazard to the public.
Friday's wind and rain has caused crews to remain hard at work surveying damage all across the county.
“The wind‘s got really really heavy up here," shares Julie Heinz. "This is just the first time that we’ve had like actual tree branches come off.”
For homeowners like Heinz, this was not a sight she expected to see.
She shares that part of her tree went crashing into her power line early Friday morning. Branches then littered her front yard, and it was all thanks to gusts of wind unlike anythings she's heard.
“I was listening to the neighbors roofs. I could hear the back tin roofs getting ready to blow off and thankfully they didn’t but I didn’t expect of the tree wreckage.”
What Heinz experienced is what most inland areas are experiencing.
SDG&E says that most of their downed power lines are affecting communities like Escondido. Crews there are assessing a tree that fell into a power line and has caused roughly 70 customers to remain without power. They are hoping to fix the situation by Friday night.
“It’s affecting our back country with very very high winds," explains Anthony Wagner with the company. "In that, we have up-staffed our crews and we have put in resources strategically throughout the county, so that if there is an outage we can get to that expeditiously.”
Other outages have taken place off Lake Jennings Road. SDG&E's website cited that weather affected their equipment.
But there have been other reasons for downed poles.
Heinz explains that personal items have been flying with the wind, “I heard another neighbor on the other side of town saw trampolines go flying out of their neighbors yard.”
SDG&E asks that before the storm gets worse, make sure all of your items are stowed away. Wagner explains it's not only to help them, but to help you.
“Often an unplanned outage is due to something like that going into a power line, and we have to wait for something like that to be dislodged from the powerline until it’s safe."
The Sheriffs Department in Alpine says their totals for downed trees are roughly near 10, and they had about 2 downed poles on Friday.
A lieutenant with the department told ABC10 News that their main concern of the coming days is lightning. He says they are ready to respond if needed.
