Only Rain Finds Smooth Sailing at Rush Hour

A quick-moving thunderstorm pelted San Diego County with rain during the 5 p.m. rush hour Friday, precipitating a rash of fender benders and knocking out power, phones and cable TV service, authorities reported. A 20% chance of thunderstorms continues through this afternoon, forecasters say.

The storm, which moved through in about 90 minutes, was caused by moist, unstable air circulating around a low-pressure system off Baja California, forecaster Wally Cegiel said.

The rain, thunder and lightning traveled through the county from the northeast to the southwest, Cegiel said, and as the moist air continued to circle the low-pressure area, the mountains and deserts were expected to get continued rain through the night.

The California Highway Patrol reported nearly 50 accidents, CHP Officer Joe Roque said.

“It’s a mess out there,” Roque said. “There are accidents everywhere, on Interstates 5, 15 and 805 and California 54, 78, 94 and 163.”

No fatalities were reported, but there were injury accidents and vehicles off the side of the road, he said.

Telephones were knocked out briefly, most of them in the La Mesa area, a Pacific Bell spokesman said.

However, San Diego Gas & Electric and cable services were harder hit, spokesmen said.

About 40,000 customers were left without power when lightning struck transformers throughout the county, said Dave Kusumoto, spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric. Service to all but 4,000 was restored by 8:30 p.m. The rest, most in the Rose Canyon area, were expected to have power by 11 p.m.

The largest single outage was in Paradise Valley south of Bonita, where 6,000 customers were without electricity, Kusumoto said. Outages ranged from Poway and Escondido to Point Loma and San Ysidro.

A fire broke out when lightning hit a transformer in the 1400 block of E Street downtown, but it was quickly extinguished, the San Diego Fire Department reported.

Cox, Dimension and Southwestern cable television companies all reported service outages. Cox said 40,000 of its customers were affected.

San Diego’s downtown, Point Loma, Hotel Circle and Spring Valley were the hardest hit, Cox Cable spokeswoman Sandy Murphy said.

“We knew we had outages about 5:10 p.m. when we had 30 calls on hold all of a sudden,” Murphy said.

Cable companies had most service restored by 7 p.m.

A 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms will remain through this afternoon, forecaster Cegiel said.