Southern California Edison added Desert Hot Springs and North Palm Springs to a list of areas that could be impacted by a public safety power shutoff should weather conditions pose a high fire risk in the coming days.
Neighborhoods east and west of North Indian Canyon Road north of Interstate 10 are among numerous areas across the Southland placed under an emergency-shutoff notice.
A red flag warning will go into effect around midnight on Thursday morning and be in effect until Friday evening due to low humidity and strong winds in the region, which elevate the fire danger, according to NBCLA meteorologists Fritz Coleman and David Biggar.
The temporary power shutoff is designed to prevent wildfires from igniting due to malfunctioning electrical equipment or downed power lines during gusty and arid conditions.
"Turning off our customers' power is not something we take lightly, but PSPS (power safety power shutoff) events are one of the ways we can better ensure the safety of the public, our customers, and our employees," Edison said in a statement.
Edison officials said those within outage boundaries should fully charge their devices each night and advised those with medical devices that rely on AC power to develop a backup plan in advance.
Maps of all areas that could be impacted by a public safety power shutoff are at www.sce.com/safety/wildfire/psps.
