About 1,400 PG&E customers remain in dark from shutoffs that blacked out 1.1 million
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. says that it has restored power to “essentially all” of the nearly 1.1 million customers impacted by its back-to-back blackouts this week, with only about 1,400 remaining without power as of late Thursday night.
About 800 of those customers must wait for crews to repair damaged equipment during daylight hours Friday, PG&E said in a 9 p.m. Thursday update on its website.
As of that time, the utility said it had identified 156 instances of damage or hazard related to the high wind events that prompted the two latest rounds of deliberate blackouts, which started Saturday and Tuesday.
PG&E ultimately implemented four major “public safety power shutoff” events in October. The two most recent events – which saw an overlap that left hundreds of thousands of customers blacked out from Saturday through at least Tuesday afternoon – were preceded by broad shutoffs Oct. 9 and Oct. 23.
All four came in response to forecasts of strong wind storms across huge swaths of Northern California. Gusty, hurricane-force winds combined with dry conditions created extreme wildfire conditions, the likes of which fueled the spread of the dangerous Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, which as of Friday morning had burned over 120 square miles but had reached 68 percent containment, according to Cal Fire.
In addition to the 1,400 powerless, another 1,200 homes and businesses in the immediate area of the Kincade Fire remain without electricity and 1,000 homes are without gas service due to the wildfire and not the planned shutoff, according to PG&E. With most evacuation orders lifted, PG&E crews have been able to enter the area to begin restoration of both services.
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 7:04 AM with the headline "About 1,400 PG&E customers remain in dark from shutoffs that blacked out 1.1 million."
