IONE, Calif. (AP) - Thousands of people in a handful of small communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills southeast of Sacramento are without electricity after a power outage hit the area.

A spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. says about 35,000 people in the communities of Ione, Jackson, Sutter Creek and San Andreas have been without power since a little after noon Monday.

Spokeswoman Brandi Ehlers says the cause of the outage is still being investigated, but it's believed to have originated in the utility's transmission lines.

PG&E crews on the ground and a helicopter crew are working on trying to find the source of the problem.

The communities affected by the outage are in Amador and Calaveras counties, southeast of Sacramento.

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