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Lights went off across much of Northern California early Wednesday as California’s largest utility began a planned power outage unprecedented in scope, shutting off electricity to more than half a million homes and businesses in 22 counties amid fears that strong winds could spark wildfires.
Among the affected areas were Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, devastated by deadly wildfires that roared through California’s wine country two years ago. Traffic began backing up around North Bay communities in the early morning darkness as signal lights went dark.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. notified local officials that an additional round of outages would come at noon Wednesday, cutting power to 234,000 customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alpine, Mariposa and San Joaquin counties. But the utility later delayed the shutoffs until 8 p.m.
“Power your electronic devices and cell phones, have flashlights and batteries, fill up your gas tanks, avoid driving if at all possible — signaling and traffic signals will be out,” San Jose Vice Mayor Charles “Chappie” Jones advised residents in a morning news conference.
PG&E at midnight began shutting off electricity to 513,000 North Bay customers in Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba counties.
“The wind event is about as strong as we had expected,” Ari Vanrenen, a PG&E spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
PG&E said a third round of outages may affect an additional 42,000 customers in undetermined locations in its southernmost service area. All told, more than 2 million residents across Northern and Central California were expected to be affected.
The decision to turn off power was based on forecasts of dry, hot and windy weather that increases risk of wildfires. PG&E said the warm windy weather would peak from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning, with gusts reaching 60 to 70 mph at higher elevations.
“The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event,” Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said in a statement. “We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire.”
San Jose said it would open three community centers — Mayfair, Camden and Southside — as well as Avaya Stadium on Coleman Avenue, where residents can charge cell phones and medical devices and get access to information, water and snacks.
The two utilities serving Southern California, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric, warned a total of more than 200,000 customers that they too could have power shut off due to high fire risk. But as of Wednesday morning, none had been turned off.
“We have not de-energized anybody,” said David Song, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, which warned 174,000 customers in nine counties of possible “public safety power shutoffs.” “We do have a number of folks notified.”
Palo Alto’s municipal utility advised residents that a power shutdown would affect customers West of Interstate 280 in the Palo Alto Foothills at noon, though it said it is unlikely other areas of Palo Alto will be affected. The city said it draws electricity from PG&E’s transmission system, even though PG&E does not directly serve electricity to Palo Alto residents.
Santa Clara’s municipal utility, however, said it is not at risk from PG&E’s public safety power shutoff.
The City of Santa Clara is NOT at risk for @PGE4Me Public Safety Power Shutoff but other Bay Area cities could be. @SantaClaraCity and @SantaClaraPower continue to monitor the situation for potential impacts. Check on family & friends in impacted areas of #SantaClaraCounty. https://t.co/7tCXYpIyo4
— City of Santa Clara (@SantaClaraCity) October 9, 2019
PG&E’s planned outages prompted a number of school districts and colleges around Northern California to close, and frustrated residents who questioned the embattled utility, in bankruptcy over costs of deadly wildfires sparked by its equipment in recent years.
Jacob Stewart vented on Twitter that the power outage “is unacceptable, especially in America, doubly so in California.”
This #poweroutage is unacceptable, especially in America, doubly so in California. For decades, PG&E used their monoploy position to maximize profits and extract undue rents instead of updating equipment and safety measures. I hope @GavinNewsom has a plan to hold them to account
— Jacob Stewart (@barbarossajake) October 9, 2019
PG&E urged customers to check its website at http://www.pgealerts.com/psps, but the site wasn’t working Wednesday morning. San Jose officials directed residents to information on their own website, http://www.sanjoseca.gov/pgeshutoff.
The Marin Gateway Shopping Center in Marin City, anchored by Target, was without power Wednesday morning. Signal lights on Bridgeway and Coloma Street were out and temporary stop signs were put in place.
At a news conference Tuesday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — whose city will be impacted by the outages — called the prospect of a five-day power shutdown “unacceptable.” She added that the utility should be properly maintaining its equipment and investing in a system that doesn’t require such drastic safety measures.
“I will continue to urge PG&E to put the people before their shareholders, that this needs to be about public safety and not cost savings,” Schaaf said.
Across the Bay Area, there was confusion Tuesday night as public agencies struggled to put out updated information about whether schools and critical transportation corridors would remain open during the shutoff.
Caltrans warned late Tuesday that it was preparing to close the Caldecott Tunnel on Highway 24 and the Tom Lantos Tunnels on Highway 1, but, using portable generators, were able to keep them open. School districts in Oakland and West Contra Costa County initially said that dozens of schools would close for the shutdown, but later revised their plans as PG&E adjusted its timeline for the shutdowns.
The unprecedented move to preemptively turn off power to customers in 34 of California’s 58 counties came amid concerns that windy and dry conditions Wednesday and Thursday could ignite wildfires across the state. Parts of Northern and Central California could see winds of 40 to 55 mph with gusts of 60 to 70 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Locally, 20 to 30 mph winds with 45 to 55 mph gusts are expected in the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills. The Santa Cruz Mountains could see winds of 15 to 25 mph with 35 to 45 mph gusts. Those areas will be under a red flag warning through Thursday.
“Tonight is when we expect the winds to reach their peak intensity, from about mid-evening all the way through about mid-morning Thursday,” said weather service meteorologist Duane Dykema in a phone interview early Wednesday morning. “That’s the period of greatest concern. That’s when we’re expecting some strong and gusty winds, especially in the hills in the North and East bays and also in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”
Dykema noted that some valley locations won’t see much wind at all.
“People living in say San Jose and Gilroy will probably be wondering what all the fuss is about,” he said.
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It is by far the largest shutdown since PG&E said earlier this year that it would begin preemptively turning off power to mitigate wildfire risks, following the determination that the utility’s equipment was the cause of several massive blazes in 2017 and 2018, including the deadly Camp Fire, which killed 86 and destroyed the town of Paradise last year.
Staff writer George Avalos contributed to this story.
Check back for updates.