Power Back On For 1,600

Having lights and a hot shower are once again a reality tonight for more than 1,600 residents in the communities of Strawberry, Cold Springs, Dodge Ridge and Leland Meadows.

Mark Hendrickson with Pacific Gas and Electric says repair crews had power back on for 95 percent of those customers by 2 p.m. this afternoon. The remaining 5 percent was to be restored by 5 p.m. tonight.

Residents of those mountain communities along Highway 108 in the eastern portion of Tuolumne County have been without electricity for a week.

Seven days ago a fierce winter storm knocked a main power lines down and snapped more than a dozen power poles off at their bases along a very remote ridge top west of Cold Springs. Crews had to walk in to the site through snowdrifts up to three-feet deep.

Hendrickson says Mother Nature fought all the way to the end, by throwing another major storm in on top of the repair effort mid-week. Sunday as crews were stringing the last wire, a tree fell and snapped the new power line.