Tonight we are tracking another storm
expected to bring more rain and
strong winds to our area tomorrow.
This one may be stronger than the
deadly storm over the New Year's
weekend that caused levee breaches,
flooding, evacuation and power outages.
Some of the areas hit hard by the
weekend storm are still cleaning
up and trying to recover in hopes
to minimize the effects of the
next big weather maker moving in.
And so we have live team coverage tonight
tracking everything you need to know.
We start with meteorologist Brendan Minchev.
And Brendan, now is the time to
bring in that patio furniture and
make any last minute preparations,
right? Yeah, that's right.
The wind is gonna be really,
really strong tomorrow.
And because of that there is a
high wind warning goes into effect
tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM
runs until 4:00 PM on Thursday.
Everywhere you see in this kind of
burnt orange color damaging winds,
winds out of the S 25 to 35 mph sustained
but gusting up to 60 mph possible.
And remember, we've had all this rain.
The ground is not hard right now.
It's a very soft, almost muddy.
Ground it in places.
That means trees are gonna be
able to topple over a lot easier
power lines potentially as well.
So let's take a look at those future wind
gusts as we go in towards Wednesday.
This is 6:30 in the morning tomorrow
and you see wind gusts already in
the San Joaquin Valley by tomorrow
morning close to 30 mph as we
work through the daytime tomorrow,
gusting between 30 and 40 mph from
between Modesto up towards Sacramento
with the strongest winds and the
strongest gusts to come late in the
day on Wednesday and into Thursday.
As well, lot of wind,
but also a lot of rain as well.
Here's Futurecast for tomorrow.
First,
bands of rain moving in with a
warm front by the time we get
towards tomorrow morning.
And then the strongest winds
ahead of the cold front,
which will push in an even heavier
band of rain and move through
late in the day on Wednesday.
So a lot of wind and a lot of
rain and even snow as well.
Haven't even mentioned that yet.
We'll talk about that later on in the show.
Chris and Laura.
Brendan, thank you.
It's been three days since the
powerful holiday storm hit Sacramento
County and thousands of customers.
Are still without power.
Yeah. And to make things worse,
another big storm, as we mentioned,
is expected to hit the area tomorrow,
and that could bring even more power outages.
ABC 10s Candace Red is live in Sacramento.
And Candace, you're talking to
folks who still don't have power.
And Chris, good evening to you.
You know what, that is exactly right.
And ABC 10, we have been
in communication with smud.
Smud says that crews are working around
the clock to get power restored for all.
But there are some hazardous
conditions in the way, giving you
a live look right over my shoulder.
Here we are at the corner of
Southgate Road and Oxford Street.
And again the company says hazardous
conditions like downed trees, flooding.
And the road conditions are hampering
ability to assess and make accurate
estimated restoration times.
And you know what?
For some, there is no telling
when the lights will be back on.
Susie Nelson, who lives in Sacramento,
says she's been without power since New
Year's Eve because of the strong storm.
It's too cold to spend
much time here, and Dark
Nelson says she's been waiting patiently
for smud to restore power. I'm getting
like one call from smud a day automated,
just sent, you know, and it it's not
very helpful. The Smud outage map shows the
power will be back on by Wednesday morning.
You're going to be on camera until then,
Nelson. Says she checked into a
hotel to stay warm, forcing her to
leave her cats at home in the dark.
It's like $110 a night at this point.
She says the power outage is costing her big
cause. I dumped out all the food
yesterday from the refrigerator and the
freezer before I left.
At least $100 worth of food,
my power did go out,
Elaine Jackson,
who lives next door, says.
Smud eventually restored
the power at her home.
But she's concerned about elderly
neighbors still in the dark.
Another woman who's 100 years
old who is actually blind,
who lives here outside of
the court that she has.
She's been driving around with her son,
I'm told, to stay warm,
and she's on oxygen
with Sacramento County expecting
another round of storms. All
the wires. Telephone poles,
that's another thing too.
Jackson says she's worried about
the possibility of downed trees,
power lines and flooding, too.
Jackson says the community
is hoping for the best,
but preparing for the worst.
This community, a lot of
people knows each other.
It's been around for a long time and
and so they are checking on each other.
And coming back out to you live now
once again, since there's still a power
outage for thousands of smud customers,
some of them have even again spent the nights
at hotels just for comfort and to stay warm.
So we reached out to smud to ask them,
are they going to fit the bill
for hotel stays or provide any
additional credits or accommodations?
Well, this is exactly what smutz.
But to us, they say in part
quote under our service rules,
smud is not responsible for losses
related to power outages unless
due to negligence on smugs part.
However, we are working with customers on an
individual basis to address specific needs.
So again, it really is on a case by
case and smug goes on to say that
claims can be submitted and will be
reviewed on a per customer basis.
Chris, Laura.
Again, as we saw, those beautiful old
trees can really be a problem too,
in a situation like this.
And with the overnights in the 40s,
these are really not easy days to
not have power or to have heat.
Candice, thank you.
And later on in our newscast,
we'll take you to San Joaquin
County to check in on communities
there still without power.