PSPS closes KVHS and Wallace schools as outages affect Kern River Valley

A Southern California Edison Public Safety Power Shutoff left portions of the Kern River Valley without electricity Friday, Oct. 16, forcing school closures and other schedule changes as strong winds and dry conditions continued across the region.

Kern Valley High School closed for the day after initially announcing a two-hour delay. The school reported losing power Friday morning.

Kernville Union School District also initially announced a two-hour delay at Wallace Elementary and Woodrow Wallace Middle School before canceling classes at both schools and the KUSD preschool.

Parents were asked to pick up their children, preferably by 9:30 a.m. Kernville Elementary remained open on its regular schedule.

The outage also affected the high school’s football schedule. Kern Valley’s games against West High School were moved from Lake Isabella to West. The junior varsity team was scheduled to leave KVHS at 1:45 p.m., followed by the varsity team at 3:45 p.m.

Southern California Edison’s outage information listed 441 customers affected across seven outages in Wofford Heights. SCE also activated a Community Resource Center at Play Your Game Recreation Center, 20 Panorama Drive in Wofford Heights. The center was scheduled to remain open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday.

The resource center offers customers affected by the shutoff access to water, snacks, charging equipment and other supplies.

At an early-morning check of SCE’s outage page, the utility reported 10,700 Kern County customers affected by active public safety shutoffs. Another 14,595 Kern County customers were listed as being considered for shutoffs. Those figures covered the entire county and were not limited to the Kern River Valley.

Residents also reported outages in portions of Weldon, Riverkern, Mountain Mesa and Wofford Heights. Reports from Weldon varied by neighborhood, indicating that the shutoff did not affect every address or circuit in the community. Those individual reports had not been independently confirmed by SCE.

No valley-wide restoration time had been announced. Restoration following a PSPS depends on weather conditions improving and crews inspecting affected electrical lines before they can be safely re-energized.

The National Weather Service in Hanford extended a Red Flag Warning for the Lake Isabella fire weather zone through 10 p.m. Friday. The agency forecast east winds of 10 to 20 mph, with gusts reaching 40 mph, and relative humidity ranging from 14% to 45%.

The warning said any fires that develop could spread rapidly and advised against outdoor burning.

Residents can check their address and obtain the latest outage information through the SCE outage status page⁠. Weather alerts are available through the National Weather Service Hanford office⁠.