Resident and farmers prepare for cold storm

PG&E has been preparing for the storm too. Officials say the Fresno County foothill communities of Auberry and Prather as places that could face prolonged outages because of the storm.

Valerie Telles works at the Canyon Feed And Supply Store in Prather. She says residents in the foothills community have been buying a lot of snow shovels and fuel for wood pellet stoves in preparation for this latest winter storm.

"It depends on your heating situation. Livestock situation. If you have livestock outside animals, things to keep them warm. Things to keep them fed. No one wants to get rain on hey in a down pour," said Telles.

Customers have also been buying things like lamp oils, batteries, and flashlights in case of a power outage. That's because residents here know if it happens, they could be in the dark for an extended period of time.

PG&E will have crews on standby 24/7, but officials admit getting to the problem can be tougher than fixing it.

PG&E Spokesman Jeff Smith: "We see low snow levels and sometimes, particularly in the more remote areas it's very difficult to access our equipment to make those repairs. So sometimes the duration of those outages can be a little bit longer."

Almond growers in the valley will also being keeping a close eye on the storm. Nick Marchini says the rain and frigid temperatures could damage some of his blossoms which are already unstable this season. "This year has been a very weird year for weather. This bloom has not been ideal whatsoever, and this is just icing on the cake."

If the temperature reaches 28-degrees or below, growers will have to take extra precautions to protect their product. Friday morning the cloud cover is keeping temperatures up, but the critical cold could come Sunday morning.