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PG&E is preparing to darken up to 130,000 customers in 15 counties and five tribal communities across California as of Monday morning if forecasts of critical fire conditions continue, the utility company said in a statement. Friday night.
If you consider an average of three people per household, the public safety power outage could affect up to 260,000 people.
In the Bay Area, the preventive shutdown could result in the loss of power to 8,577 homes in Sonoma and Napa counties.
“This is not expected to be a widespread event in the Bay Area at this time,” PG&E said in a statement.
Outside of the Bay Area, the following counties could be affected: Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Lake, Monterey, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Tulare, Tuolumne and Yuba.
The initial notifications were sent to people at risk of a power outage on Friday.
Preventive power cuts are a strategy to prevent fires from being started by power lines that have been damaged or knocked down amid high winds at sea. PG&E equipment has sparked several massive fires that have destroyed dozens of thousands of homes and killed more than 100 people since 2017.
High fire risk conditions are expected to arrive late Sunday evening, with offshore winds peaking during the day Monday and persisting in some areas until Tuesday morning, PG&E said. In the Bay Area, the strongest gusts and lowest humidity levels are expected at higher elevations. A few gusts could be blowing in the valleys, but should not be as severe as in the mountains at this time.
The National Weather Service is also sounding the alarm on the high fire risk and will closely monitor the forecast to determine whether it is appropriate to issue a red flag warning. Conditions are particularly difficult due to the lack of rain in October and November.
“We had a little rain in November and it was very beneficial,” said Brian Garcia, a weather forecaster with the weather service. “Although we benefited from the rain, we haven’t had any since. And then we were very sunny and have seen the fields dry up again in recent days ”.
Offshore winds blow warm air from inland areas towards the coast and are known to dry out the landscape, essentially sucking moisture from vegetation and leaving it dry and vulnerable to burning.
Southern California experienced a wind event earlier this week, triggering shutdowns and causing several wildfires, including the Bond Fire in Orange County.
Here is a list of the number of customers per county that could potentially be affected by this PSPS event.
Alpine County: 574 clients
Amador County: 9,573 customers
Calaveras County: 10,759 customers
El Dorado County: 35,732 customers
Fresno County: 1,292 customers
Lake County: 1,223 clients
Monterey County: 333 customers
Napa County: 6,780 customers
Nevada County: 25,938 customers
Placer County: 24,918 clients
Sierra County: 1,099 clients
Sonoma County: 1,797 clients
Tulare County: 276 clients
Tuolumne County: 10,114 customers
Yuba County: 312 clients
Total: 130,720 customers
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