MOUNT LAGUNA, Calif. (KGTV) – Linda and Michael Rice have called Mount Laguna home for 20 years.
"We built our house in 2005,” Linda Rice said. "[It’s] wonderful. It's paradise."
Paradise has perks and sometimes quirks, like being prepared for public safety power shutoffs from San Diego Gas and Electric.
"Before, the Santa Anas were always September. Now, it's unusual to me that it's during the winter,” Rice said.
And that power outage is on the way.
"We have a generator, so we are able to run our house off of the generator,” Rice said. "But if it's more than like if it's for two days or so, we have to run it continuously and shut it off at night. And, it gets very cold at night this time of year."
SDG&E said tens of thousands of customers are at risk of another possible power shutoff starting Tuesday. It could last until Friday.
"I cherish this mountain, and I don't want anything to happen to it. So I totally understand that they have to do that for safety reasons,” Rice said. “They don't really shut us off, but it seems to be more lately."
Linda says their power lines were put underground about two years ago.
"I thought, 'Oh boy! Now we don't have to have our power shut off when the wind blows,' but that didn't happen,” Rice said. “So I'm just really curious why... they still have to shut us off."
ABC 10News was told that if the lines are underground and not impacted by a weather event, they could still be connected to some section of the grid that's energizing them and possibly being affected by the weather event.
Those impacted lines connected to the underground ones could be turned off, and that can lead to a power shutoff for areas using the underground lines.
“I totally understand that other people on the circuit are affected, and I appreciate the fact that SDG&E is trying to protect us. That's the number one thing I'm going to say,” Rice said. “So, it's a little inconvenient, but I'm OK with it. I just had the question... Why all this money and time to [place the lines] underground."
