Strong winds, power outages have Inland Empire residents living on high alert
The combination of powerful winds and potential power outages has many people living across the Inland Empire living on edge, especially after witnessing the sheer force of the two devastating wildfires that continue to rage in Los Angeles County to the north.
Another Santa Ana wind movement is currently impacting much of Southern California, presenting another "Particularly Dangerous Situation" for LA just a week after the Palisades and Eaton Fires broke out, fueled by the intense winds.
Further south in San Bernardino, the only sound louder than that of the winds was the chorus of generators. Southern California Edison has cut power for more than 50,000 people and businesses on Wednesday with the winds on deck, hopeful to avoid potentially sparking any brushfire with downed equipment.
"It's like a psychological-emotional rollercoaster," said Chanaa Smith, who lives in San Bernardino and says she and her neighbors have had their power turned on and off several times over the last week.
They have more than 480,000 more people on a watchlist to lose their services as well because of the wind, which isn't supposed to fully subside until Friday morning.
"I think they're afraid of being sued again," said Donald Ballard, another San Bernardino resident. "All our power lines are underground."
He's one of the many with generators, but Smith says that she's been unable to find one after everyone jumped onto the trend when power outages started last week.
They've become so popular, that the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says they're already looking for suspects involved in multiple generator thefts.