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About 700 residents lost electricity for most of the day Tuesday as crews moved power lines threatened by a rock slide that closed a main route into Yosemite National Park.
Park officials operated backup generators to avert outages, Yosemite officials said. But residents in El Portal and Indian Flats lost power for much of the day, said Mark Hendrickson, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
The slide began April 29, prompting sporadic road closures on Highway 140, the western entrance into Yosemite. The road was closed indefinitely June 1 as debris continues to come down in a 600-foot-wide swath.
Federal officials have set up a management team to plan for possible emergencies. Over the weekend, geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey inspected the slide and determined a large section of the mountainside could come down and create an earthen dam in the Merced River.
Said Ed Cole, supervisor of the Sierra National Forest, "Based on the geological assessment, a federal team was activated to develop contingency plans in the event the Merced River should be affected."
PG&E officials also were concerned about a possible emergency developing from the slide. They feared a wildfire would be sparked if the towers toppled.
Since Saturday, they have been preparing for moving the electricity towers, which carry 72,000 volts of electricity to small communities and Yosemite.
Officials got permission Friday to move about 2,500 feet of transmission lines, Hendrickson said.
The utility brought in about 60 extra people and equipment borrowed from as far as Los Angeles on Saturday. Two wooden poles will be permanently moved from the west side of the Merced River to the east side, Hendrickson said.
"We deemed this very much an urgent situation, an emergency situation," Hendrickson said.
He added that all PG&E customers in the area were notified by Monday about the possibility of power outages.
The communities lost power about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and electricity was expected to be restored by 6 p.m., he said.
The 57 students at Yosemite's El Portal Elementary School munched on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Clif bars for lunch because the kitchen wasn't operational.
Many were also weary from the long commute they now face to get around the slide, school officials said. Some students are spending 41/2 hours on the road to get to and from school each day.
"The ones who are doing that are exhausted, as are their parents," said Principal Phyllis Weber.
Mariposa County elections officials kept the polls open downstairs at the school for balloting in California's primary election Tuesday, but the voting machines only had limited power and one backup battery. Officials kept paper ballots on hand in case the machines went dark.
Even so, the outages weren't a big concern, said park spokeswoman Adrianne Freeman.
"What we're seeing right now are some glitches," she said. "It's not unexpected. No one is terribly worried."
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