Lightning strikes leave thousands without power in Merced County

Thousands of customers in Merced and Stanislaus counties were without power for a few hours Monday afternoon due to lightning strikes, according to Merced Irrigation District officials.

The outage was reported around 1 p.m. after a series of thunderstorms moved through the area. Residents reported outages in several Merced County areas, including Merced and Atwater.

According to MID spokesman Mike Jensen, officials believe simultaneous lightning strikes happened at several locations within both Merced Irrigation District and Turlock Irrigation District electric systems.

Crews from both districts coordinated and immediately responded, Jensen said in an email. Power was restored around 2:20 p.m., Jensen said.

“This event temporarily interrupted electric service to all of MID’s 8,200 residential and business customers,” Jensen wrote in his email. “This is only the second system-wide interruption MID has had in its nearly 20-year history as an electric utility. The district regrets any inconvenience to the community it serves.”

This story was originally published March 2, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Lightning strikes leave thousands without power in Merced County."