power line

Should residents need to venture outside, Moore warned people to avoid walking or driving through moving water and to stay away from any downed power lines.

When the prolonged shaking knocked out power lines, backup generators clicked on to run the plant’s instrument panels and keep critical coolant moving through the reactors.

The region could see gusts of up to 40 mph, and “downed trees and power lines may result in power outages,” the weather service office in Monterey said.

Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the United States; bringing new high-voltage power lines into service takes five to 10 years.

Ventura County was also the epicenter of two other devastating recent fires, both of which were sparked by power lines.