PG&E cutting power to 70,000 Sierra Foothills customers due to fire danger

Submitted by paula on Sun, 10/14/2018 - 9:04pm

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is in emergency mode in extreme fire-risk areas in Butte, Sierra, Placer, Nevada, El Dorado, Amador, Plumas, Calaveras and Yuba counties due to Red Flag warnings by the National Weather Service. These shutoffs will affect about 70,000 customers.

South Lake Tahoe is served by Liberty Utilities and not part of the utility company's plan to start proactively shutting off power for safety as early as 5 p.m. Sunday and continuing through the evening.

Those areas that can expect the power outage: El Dorado County (Aukum, Camino, Coloma, Cool, Diamond Springs, El Dorado, Fair Play, Garden Valley, Georgetown, Greenwood, Grizzly Flats, Kelsey, Kyburz, Mount Aukum, Omo Ranch, Pacific House, Placerville, Pollock Pines, Shingle Springs, Silver Fork, Somerset, Strawberry, Twin Bridges), Placer County (Alta, Applegate, Auburn, Baxter, Colfax, Dutch Flat, Emigrant Gap, Foresthill, Gold Run, Loomis, Meadow Vista, Weimar), Nevada County (Chicago Park, Grass Valley, Nevada City, North San Juan, Penn Valley, Rough and Ready, Soda Springs, Washington) and Amador County (Fiddletown, Jackson, Pine Grove, Pioneer, Plymouth, Sutter Creek, Volcano)

The Public Safety Power Shutoff plan is based on localized weather forecasts calling for wind gusts of up to 50 mph Sunday night into Monday morning.

The second phase of the shutoff plan will be to 17,000 customers in Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties.

When the extreme weather has passed, and conditions are safe, PG&E crews will visually inspect the lines during daylight hours for any necessary repairs and safely restore power to customers.

Most customers are expected to be restored by Monday night (October 15), with some outages potentially lasting into Tuesday (October 16). Power restoration time would depend on weather conditions and if any repairs are needed.

It was just one year ago that the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa started during extremely high winds combined with dry conditions and parched vegetation. PG&E said they would take a proactive approach so the same type of conditions would not cause further losses of life and property.