Thousands of customers are without power in the Bay Area and several rural Northern California counties as heavy rain and snow hit the area, flooding roads and toppling trees.
Nearly 250 PG&E customers in Sonoma County remain without power following an outage caused by a downed tree on Coleman Valley Road in Occidental early Wednesday morning.
Crews responded to the scene shortly after midnight and began cutting the tree and the electrical power.
The road was cleared about an hour and a half later but all customers affected will remain without power until about 1 p.m.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the total number of customers without power had been reduced by nearly half at about 8,000, according to PG&E, broken down as follows: 1,665 in the North Bay; 358 in the East Bay; 5,062 in the South Bay; 933 on the Peninsula; and 35 in San Francisco.
In Walnut Creek, a downed tree is blocking a roadway the 1500 block of Homestead Avenue, between Seven Hills Ranch Road and Danforth Lane, according to a statement police issued online.
Local
Delays are expected to persist until at least noontime, according to police.
In Atherton, part of a eucalyptus tree fell on power lines and across the roadway. Worker used heavy equipment to move it and another with a chainsaw to remove the trees in parts. As many as 49 PG&E customers affected, according to the utility company.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory until 10 a.m. Thursday as wind speeds could range between 20 and 35 mph with gusts topping out around 45 mph.
More than 60,000 customers are without power in rural Northern California counties.
Paul Moreno, a spokesman with PG&E, says 45,000 of their customers are without power in Shasta, Tehama, Butte and Glenn Counties.
Another 16,000 customers of Redding Electric Utility are also without power in Redding. The utility says the storm has caused major damage to their system.
Moreno says crews are working to restore power, which is expected to be back online by later Wednesday.
Kirkwood Mountain Resort spokesman Kevin "Coop" Cooper says the Sierra have been receiving rain and snow since Tuesday. He says strong winds have subsided but they are forecast to return.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
