Tens of thousands of people in 12 counties braced for power failures in the Bay Area and Sierra foothills Sunday night after Pacific Gas and Electric Co. preemptively shut down electricity in anticipation of gusty winds, bone-dry weather and dangerous fire conditions across Northern California. As of early Monday morning, 59,819 customers were still without power, officials said. The outage are affecting residents of Napa, Sonoma, El Dorado, Lake, Amador and Calaveras counties. The move to shut down power was unprecedented for Northern California, where the impacts would be felt from remote towns, to cities such as Santa Rosa, Napa, Oroville and Auburn, and to popular tourist getaways such as Nevada City, Calistoga and Healdsburg. Scheduled shutoffs rolled through the North Bay and Sierra throughout the evening, when the National Weather Service had forecast strong winds and low humidity at higher elevations. Many factors played into the decision to turn off the power, including a widespread red flag warning, on-the-ground reports from workers and humidity levels below 20 percent. The goal was to limit the fire risk posed by live utility lines that can fall in a windstorm. Damaged electrical equipment has sparked some of the most destructive fires in California history, including many that swept through Wine Country last year. “We know our customers rely on electric service, and we would only consider turning off power in the interest of safety and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions,” said PG&E spokeswoman Megan McFarland. “Once the conditions are safe, our crews (will) work to restore power as quickly as possible.” Some officials applauded the move, but others were upset. Joan Sato, 69, of Clearlake (Lake County) said the breathing system she uses for sleep apnea won’t work without electricity and nobody at PG&E could tell her what was happening or how she should handle the situation. “I’m angry for sure because it’s totally irresponsible to pull this stuff,” said Sato, who was alone in her darkened home with her 90-pound shepherd mix after the electricity went off at 8:35 p.m. “I’m going to have to drive to a hotel and stay in a hotel where there is power, but, with no lights, it’s not going to be a safe thing. And that means my dog will be sitting in the car all night. It’s not just me. It’s every damned senior up here.” In the past, PG&E has resisted preemptively turning off power, saying it poses its own risks and could leave police, firefighters and hospitals with no electricity during an emergency. After last year’s devastating fires, though, PG&E developed protocols detailing when and how to shut off power in the face of potentially life-threatening conditions. The utility has prepared for, but never executed, such an action. As an added precaution, PG&E temporarily disabled devices called reclosers in the 12 high-risk counties. Reclosers automatically try to restart failed power lines using a pulse of electricity. While the devices can prevent or shorten blackouts, they have been implicated in past wildfires. PG&E contacted residents who would be impacted, with a goal of sending customers alerts 48 hours, 24 hours and just prior to shutting off power. The Onyx Theater, a small, independent cinema in Nevada City, closed early Sunday night after its manager, Celine Negrete, received a recorded message saying that its power would be turned off. Negrete canceled shows — a decision that will cost the business money — to avoid having customers left in the dark midway through a screening. “We show really strong and powerful films,” Negrete said. “And I didn’t want our patrons to be interrupted by a power outage.” Many in the community understand PG&E’s decision, Negrete said, but some are still frustrated. “There’s a feeling that this is because PG&E didn’t take care of what needed to be taken care of in the past, and now we’re having to pay the price for that,” she said. “That’s what I’m hearing on social media really loudly.” Most communities are expected to have power restored by Monday night, but some blackouts could last into Tuesday. PG&E will provide updates and information through social media, radio and on its website. Officials in Sonoma County, which was hit particularly hard by last October’s firestorm, said they had geared up for losing electricity this weekend after being warned by PG&E that it might happen. “I do believe that the community would rather PG&E take proactive action than have the possibility of a repeat of the fires last year,” said Susan Gorin, a Sonoma County supervisor. “We are very sensitized to high winds, smelling smoke, and everybody is very aware of vegetation management. Any measures the government or utilities can take to lessen the risk of a repeat of the hellacious firestorms would be gratefully appreciated by the community.” Interactive California Fire Tracker This interactive map provides information on wildfires burning across California and lets you explore coverage of past fire seasons. Power companies in Southern California often have shut down power during Santa Ana winds over the past decade. San Diego Gas and Electric began adopting safety measures after the 2003 Cedar Fire, which burned 273,246 acres in San Diego County. The utility has created a fire safety network, including 170 weather stations, and has shut down power 17 times during high winds since 2007. “With so many fires pinpointed to electrical lines, when we have nights where winds are going to be 50 or 60 miles per hour, it makes sense to me,” said David Rabbitt, another Sonoma County supervisor. North Bay officials said their main concern about such a system is that there is ample warning and specific information about which areas will lose power and for how long. That’s especially important for the elderly on respirators. “What’s really important is that they communicate with local community hospitals, senior citizens groups and other vulnerable communities to make sure that they understand what’s going on,” said state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, who said PG&E appears to have done just that. “I appreciate the fact that they are paying attention. I wish they were paying attention a year ago.”<doc-sep>Power lines remain deactivated in a dozen Northern California counties Monday morning, part of an effort by Pacific Gas and Electric to raise the odds against conditions conspiring to create a wildfire on par with last year’s Wine Country firestorm. Making good on warnings issued Saturday, PG&E staff on Sunday night at about 8 p.m. deactivated the power lines to nearly 60,000 customers in Northern California. PG&E officials said they were relying on a combination of adverse conditions, including a National Weather Service-issued red flag warning, sustained winds above 25 miles per hour with gusts topping 45 mph, dry-fuel and live vegetation conditions, and field crews’ real-time observations. As of Monday morning at 5 a.m., the power remained off in many Northern California counties, including Lake, Napa and Sonoma. The weather service said wind speeds have been decreasing since 3 a.m. Monday, a trend that will continue through mid-day. The red flag warning for the North and East Bay hills remains in effect through noon Monday, according to the weather service. As of 8:03 PM, PG&E has proactively turned off power in extreme fire-risk areas of Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties based on localized weather forecasts calling for wind gusts of up to 50 mph tonight into Monday AM. Approx. 17,483 customers are impacted. https://t.co/Cr4Rqoc651 pic.twitter.com/kwJrMuRgI1 — PG&E (@PGE4Me) October 15, 2018 At 8:03 p.m., nearly 17,500 customers in three of those counties, Lake, Napa and Sonoma, lost power. Monday morning at 5 a.m., the power deactivation remained in effect. In Napa County, about 5,800 customers in the towns of Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Napa, Pope Valley, Saint Helena were cut off, while Sonoma County saw unincorporated northeastern areas, and parts of Cloverdale, Geyserville, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa go dark. In Lake County, the towns of Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake Park, Cobb, Finley, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lower Lake and Middletown lost power. Currently, PG&E power shutoffs planned for tonight do not impact customers within Santa Rosa city limits. Details: https://t.co/rBpZFlxTo1 pic.twitter.com/ozRrHDwJwz — City of Santa Rosa (@CityofSantaRosa) October 15, 2018 Given the Red Flag Warning that’s in effect, high winds in upper elevations of Sonoma County & the potential for extreme fire weather, additional firefighters (as seen here) from numerous fire departments across Sonoma County are on duty thru tomorrow (Monday) at noon. pic.twitter.com/QMHdM1SgEV — Santa Rosa Fire Department (@SantaRosaFire) October 15, 2018 An estimated total of 70,000 customers in the state were affected, including those in many communities in the Sierra Foothills counties of Butte, Sierra, Placer, Nevada, El Dorado, Amador, Plumas, Calaveras and Yuba. As of 8:48 PM, PG&E has proactively turned off power in extreme fire-risk areas of El Dorado, Amador & Calaveras counties based on localized weather forecasts calling for wind gusts of up to 50 mph tonight into Mon. AM. Approx. 42k customers impacted. pic.twitter.com/I6OgAmfNlK — PG&E (@PGE4Me) October 15, 2018 In a statement Sunday. PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations stressed the utility’s efforts to prevent another catastrophic conflagration. “Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and the communities we serve. We know how much our customers rely on electric service, and we have made the decision to turn off power as a last resort given the extreme fire danger conditions these communities are experiencing,” Hogan said. “PG&E has a plan. We want our customers to have plans, too.” After conditions hopefully ease Monday, PG&E crew members are expected to make any needed repairs to wind-damaged lines before restoring power, with most back online by Monday night or Tuesday at the latest. Although the weather service’s Bay Area-focused Twitter account shared tweets saying peak winds in the North Bay hills topped out early Sunday evening around 50 mph, instruments atop Napa’s 4,300-foot Mt. St. Helena registered north winds at 60 mph with gusts up to 72 mph. Peak wind speeds over the past 24 hrs. The two observations south of Middletown are located on Mt. St. Helena. Winds have been decreasing since about 3 am, a trend that will continue thru midday. A Red Flag Warning remains in effect for the N & E Bay Hills until Noon. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/OuUZTIVnWL — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 15, 2018 8 pm winds atop Mt. St. Helena (4300') near the Sonoma/Napa/Lake county line: North at 60 mph gusting to 72 mph. Winds elsewhere in the hills of the N and E Bay are gusting between 25 and 45 mph. Strong and gusty offshore winds will continue in the hills thru the night. #CAwx — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) October 15, 2018 Check back for updates. Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.<doc-sep>Extremely dry and windy weather conditions prompted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to shut off power to tens of thousands of Northern California customers Sunday to prevent power lines from possibly sparking a massive wildfire. Here’s what we know so far about the outages: How many people are affected by the power shutdown? PG&E reported that 3,400-plus customers were still without electricity Tuesday morning. The outage affected 1,794 people in parts of Calistoga, Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, and about 1,640 people in Lake County remained in the dark. When is power expected to return? Forecasts from PG&E predicted that power would be restored to all customers Tuesday. Was the power shutdown really necessary? The shutdown was an unprecedented move for the utility company, which had previously resisted preemptively turning off power during extreme fire conditions. Red-flag warnings, low humidity levels and the condition of dry brush and vegetation on the ground all factor into the decision to shut off lines in “extreme fire-risk areas,” officials said. PG&E also temporarily disabled reclosers in counties affected by the outage. The devices are programmed to restart switched-off power lines with a burst of electricity. Although important for preventing and shortening blackouts, the pulses have been implicated in starting the wildfires that swept across Wine Country in 2017. In June, Cal Fire investigators blamed PG&E power lines for sparking at least a dozen wildfires in the state, including the deadly Atlas and Nuns fires last year. Have other power companies preemptively taken similar action? San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison have shut down power lines in the past as preventive measures in high-wind areas. San Diego Gas & Electric similarly shut down electricity to 360 customers on Monday as a precaution. What weather conditions spurred PG&E to shut down the power and why does it matter? The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning on Saturday. Forecasts had predicted gusts up to 70 mph in the ridges of North Bay mountains, along with daytime humidity as low as 5 percent in some areas. Any fires sparked could have spread rapidly. Doherty said PG&E monitors weather conditions and vegetation and asks crews in the field for their observations. “There is no single factor,” he said. What should I do in case of an emergency? Customers experiencing a medical emergency should call 911. PG&E recommended that customers prepare an emergency plan for future outages by learning if they’re in a high-fire-threat area and creating an emergency supply kit. Chronicle staff writer Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report. Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu<doc-sep>Hide Transcript Show Transcript WEBVTT WONDERING IF IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. KCRA 3’S MIKE LUERY HAS BEEN DIGGING ALL DAY FOR ANSWERS. MIKE: PG&E HAS CREWS IN THE FIELD, AND DATA BOXES ON THE GROUND ACTIVELY MONITORING WIND AND HUMIDITY. THE UTILITY TELLS US ITS WILDFIRE SAFETY OPERATION DETECTED WEATHER CONDITIONS THAT PUT SEVERAL AREAS AT HIGH RISK GUSTY WINDS, LOW HUMIDITY, AND DRY FUEL CONDITIONS LEADING PG&E TO SHUT OFF POWER TO ABOUT 60,000 CUSTOMERS. HOW OFTEN HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE? >> THIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE’VE IMPLEMENTED OUR PUBLIC SAFETY SHUTOFF PROGRAM. EVER. MIKE: THE DECISION AFFECTED CUSTOMERS IN SEVEN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTIES, INCLUDING NAPA, LAKE, AND SONOMA COUNTIES IN THE NORTH BAY, ALONG WITH AMADOR, CALAVERAS, PLACER AND EL DORADO IN THE SIERRA FOOTHILLS, WHERE SENATOR TED GAINES SAYS HE’S HEARING FROM DOZENS OF ANGRY RESIDENTS. >> THEY ARE VERY UPSET ABOUT THE POWER BEING CUT OFF AND COMPLAINTS ABOUT NOT ENOUGH WARNING. MIKE: GAINES SAYS PG&E NEEDS TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE ABOUT CLEARING AWAY VEGETATION AND TREES NEAR POWER LINES. >> PG&E I THINK COULD ACCELERATE THE INFRASTRUCTURE CHANGES THAT THEY ARE DOING MUCH MORE RAPIDLY , AND WE COULD ALSO HAVE THE STATE HELPING OUT WITH A BUDGET SURPLUS IN DEBRIS REMOVAL. MIKE: CALIFORNIA IS DEVOTING MORE RESOURCES AND MONEY TO THE REMOVAL OF DEAD TREES. MEANWHILE, CALFIRE TELLS US MORE THAN A DOZEN WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA, INCLUDING THE DEAD ATLAS FIRE THAT KILLED SIX PEOPLE AND DESTROYED MORE THAN 700 STRUCTURES IN NAPA COUNTY LAST YEAR, WERE SPARKED BY PG&E POWER LINES. >> WE HAD 17 FIRES FROM THE 2017 FIRE SEASON SINCE OCTOBER THAT WERE CAUSED BY PG&E POWER LINES. BUT AGAIN, THAT DOESN’T MEAN ALL OF THEM ARE VIOLATIONS. IT WAS JUST FAILURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE OR TREES. MIKE TODAY, THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION SAID IT IS ACTIVELY MONITORING PG&E’S DECISION TO SHUT OFF THE POWER AND SAYS, "WE WILL ALSO DO A POST-EVENT REVIEW, INCLUDING THE FACTORS THAT WENT INTO PG&E’S DECISION TO DE-ENE Advertisement PG&E defends decision to shut off power to thousands in NorCal Customers say they weren't given enough notice Share Shares Copy Link Copy PG&E’s decision to shut down power to nearly 60,000 customers is unprecedented.Now, many people in Northern California are wondering if it will happen again.PG&E has crews in the field and data boxes on the ground that actively monitor wind, humidity and dry fuel conditions. PG&E said its wildfire safety operation center detected weather conditions that put several areas at risk.“This is the first time we’ve implemented our public safety shutoff program, ever” PG&E spokesperson James Noonan said.| RELATED | PG&E outlines when power is expected to return to thousands“Over the weekend, there was a high wind event with gusts as high as 50 miles per hour,” Noonan added. “And those conditions, a combination of those factors led us to the decision to proactively turn off power into these communities.”The decision affected customers in seven Northern California counties including Napa, Lake and Sonoma counties in the North Bay, along with Amador, Calaveras, Placer and El Dorado counties in the Sierra foothills. State Sen. Ted Gaines, who represents the foothill region, said he has been hearing from dozens of angry residents.“They are very upset about the power being cut off and complaints about not (being given) enough warning,” said Gaines, R-El Dorado Hills.He said PG&E needs to be more aggressive about clearing away vegetation and trees near power lines.“PG&E, I think, could accelerate the infrastructure changes that they are doing much more rapidly and we could also have the state helping out with a budget surplus in debris removal,” Gaines added.California is devoting more money and resources to the removal of dead trees. Meanwhile, Cal Fire said more than a dozen wildfires in California, including the deadly Atlas Fire, which killed six people and destroyed more than 700 structures in Napa County last year, were sparked by PG&E power lines.“We had 17 fires from the 2017 fire season since October that were caused by PG&E power lines,” Cal Fire’s Deputy Director Mike Mohler said. “But that doesn’t mean they were all violations. It was just failure of infrastructure or trees.”The California Public Utilities Commission said it is actively monitoring PG&E’s decision to shut off the power. “We will also do a post-event review, including the factors that went into PG&E’s decision to de-energize, customer outreach and notification and restoration times,” CPUC spokesman Christopher Chow said.<doc-sep>
Power was shut off to about 118,500 customers in parts of more than a dozen Northern California counties late Sunday in an unprecedented move to pre-empt wildfires with strong winds and extreme weather conditions. Utility company Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E, said it was shutting off power to help reduce the risk of wildfires. Some of the deadly infernos that engulfed the state this time last year were caused by downed power lines and damaged electrical equipment. The National Weather Service warned Sunday of critical fire-related weather conditions in the North Bay Mountains and East Bay Hills continuing through Monday morning due to a combination of strong, gusty offshore winds and low relative humidity. Flowers mark the spot where Mike Rippey's family died in the Atlas Fire just after it began, on Oct. 12, 2017, near Napa, California. David McNew / Getty Images Red flag fire warnings hit several areas, including the hills of Napa and eastern Sonoma counties, the Diablo Range, the Sacramento Valley, and the northern Sierra Nevada and Northern Coast Range. PG&E and county officials were contacting customers directly and providing early warning notification, when and where possible, via automated calls, texts and emails, reported NBC Bay Area. The utility went ahead with the shutoff plan in some extreme fire-risk areas in the northern part of the state and near the Sierra Nevada as early as Sunday afternoon and then expanded it down to some areas of the North Bay, according to the station. The utility said most customers can expect power to be restored on Monday night, with some outages potentially lasting into Tuesday. Some school districts in Napa and Lake counties have canceled classes Monday because of the power shutoff. "We know how much our customers rely on electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions," said Pat Hogan, senior vice president of electric operations. In June, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, announced that the utility's "electric power and distribution lines, conductors and the failure of power poles" caused at least a dozen wildfires in six Northern California counties a year ago during the state's deadliest and costliest wildfire season. A total of 44 people died and more than 6,000 homes were destroyed by blazes that devastated much of Sonoma County and elsewhere in the region. The so-called October 2017 Fire Siege involved more than 170 fires and burned at least 245,000 acres in Northern California. About 11,000 firefighters from 17 states and Australia helped battle the blazes. PG&E has faced a growing financial liability over wildfires in the state. The utility has told shareholders it expects to pay more than $2.5 billion in damages. California law compels utilities to pay for damages from wildfires if their equipment caused the blazes — even if the utilities weren't negligent.