UPDATED: Over 27,600 PG&E customers without power in Monterey County—it might take some time for all to be restored.

Over 27,600 PG&E customers in Monterey County were without electricity as of 11am, Monday, Feb. 5, according to PowerOutage.us, 13.45 percent of all customers in the county. When that power will be restored is still unknown for many of those customers.

A common message outage status message from the PG&E outage map shows that the restoration time is "to be determined."

There's a reason for that message: Crews cannot access many areas until they are deemed safe to enter. That could mean waiting for first responders and tree crew contractors to clear away fallen trees and branches. PG&E crews also must also de-electrify lines before work can begin.

"We’re really focused on safety and restoring power," says Stephanie Magallon, a PG&E spokesperson.

UPDATE: As of 2:30pm, the number of outages decreased to around 23,500.

At a 1:30pm press conference held at the PG&E base camp located inside the Laguna Seca Recreational Area, Teresa Alvarado, vice president for the South Bay and Central Coast region, said Sunday's storm "proved to be among the most damaging that we've ever experienced." With wind gusts of up to 90mph, and high winds over an extended period of time, the storm caused even healthy trees to uproot and pull down power lines.

Safe access for crews is still a challenge, she said, which will lead to longer wait times for power restoration. Flooding and downed trees are preventing immediate access, "and that is limiting our ability to assess the damage and provide an estimated time of restoration.

The company is also committed to providing an estimated time of restoration within 24 hours, Magallon says, using data-driven estimates and past experiences.

As of Monday afternoon, some areas like Pacific Grove and Carmel still showed a restoration time to be determined, but other areas like Carmel Valley were showing restoration times of Wednesday, Feb. 7.

Joe Holbert, the incident commander of the base camp, said during the press conference that his 37 crews representing over 400 workers were dealing with 150 different outage locations in the county. 

"We are finishing up our assessment stage and in the restoration stage, we also have a lot of make-safe activity going on. He said they are prioritizing "sensitive clients" like hospitals and schools. One of the earlier restorations was to Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey. "That pulls us away sometimes from assessments and restorations, delaying the restoration times," he said.

Holbert said they do prioritize areas with higher outage counts, which as of Tuesday afternoon was in the Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and Carmel area.

Last March, around 37,000 customers on the lower Monterey Peninsula lost power after a major line was disrupted by a falling cypress tree in near the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, during an atmospheric river storm.

Messages from PG&E to some customers suggested power would be back on within a day—it took 48 hours to restore a large number of customers, but some in Carmel waited at least three days and more in Pebble Beach waited over a week due to the severity of damage by fallen trees and other debris.

On Sunday, Feb. 4, County of Monterey officials issued a shelter-in-place order for Pebble Beach residents until further notice, after the latest storm wreaked havoc within the Del Monte Forest, blocking many roads. Like last year, Pebble Beach may take longer to see its power restored, in part due to its geography. 

“Pebble Beach gets hit by the outages more than anyone else," Mike Niccum, general manager of the Pebble Beach Community Services District, told the Weekly last fall for a story about the challenges to keeping the power on in forested areas of Monterey Peninsula.

Niccum said he also understands that PG&E will focus on more populated areas ahead of Pebble Beach, further extending restoration times.

Ahead of this winter, PG&E stockpiled poles, lines and other equipment on the Monterey Peninsula. The County of Monterey Public Works, Facilities and Parks, in conjunction with Laguna Seca Recreational Area management, announced Monday, Feb. 5, that they were partnering with PG&E to use the county facility as a staging area for PG&E's recovery efforts.