Hundreds of people in El Dorado County still in the dark after devastating California storm

Foothill community without power faces near-freezing overnight temperatures

EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) - Downed trees have left hundreds of people living in the foothills powerless as temperatures drop into near-freezing temperatures overnight.

Mike and Terri Brown have been living in storm survival mode in Georgetown. 

"So, in the last 72 hours, we've lost our power twice," Mike Brown said. 

The couple has two giant German shepherds and a wood stove. 

"One of the nice things is we can have the wood stove going," Brown said. 

When CBS13 caught up with them Tuesday night, the Browns' power had just been turned back on.

"We've been out of power since about 4, 4:30 this morning and we just got it back about an hour ago," he said. 

Mike Calles' Georgetown home is still without power. His trip to the gas station included the purchase of two propane tanks for his generator. 

"Get the wood stocked up, and get ready to roll," Calles said. "It's just part of living up here."

Signs up on the Georgetown Library showed it shut down early because of power problems. PG&E distributed emergency kits including phone chargers, blankets, and water at fire stations and convenience stores to help people through their outages. 

"We had 200, I think, at noon, and now we're out of it," Georgetown Gas and Go clerk Vicky Clough said.

A PG&E outage map showed some El Dorado County homes had been without power since Sunday, with planned restoration on Wednesday. As sure as this downpour continues drenching El Dorado County, making its rivers, creeks, and streams swollen, long power outages here are less an exasperation and more of an expectation. 

"It's just kind of how we roll up here; you move to Georgetown and you just kind of accept the fact that you can't whine," Terri Brown said. 

On Tuesday night, PG&E had about 1,500 outages in El Dorado County, with the majority of those in Georgetown and Valley Springs.

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