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PG&E to Shut Off Power for Nearly 1 Million Customers as Californians Flee Fires PG&E to Shut Off Power for Nearly 1 Million Customers as Californians Flee Fires
(about 3 hours later)
HEALDSBURG, Calif. — Officials said Saturday that they would be shutting off power for almost a million customers in Northern California to prevent additional wildfires, just as 50,000 residents in Sonoma County were ordered to flee because of the spreading Kincade fire. HEALDSBURG, Calif. — Popular downtown boutiques and farm-to-table restaurants were deserted in Healdsburg, Calif., by Saturday afternoon. Traffic ground to a halt in downtown Windsor, where lines for gas stations spilled into gridlocked roadways. The county fairgrounds in Santa Rosa once again morphed into a disaster base camp.
The blackout by Pacific Gas and Electric, due in part to high winds and dry conditions, would be the largest power shut-off to prevent wildfires in California history. The utility said it would begin cutting power to 940,000 homes and businesses — which could affect as many as 2.7 million people — on Saturday afternoon and that residents should plan to spend at least two days without electricity. Even an evacuation center in Sonoma County had to be evacuated.
Late Saturday morning, Sonoma County officials ordered 50,000 residents to flee from the spreading fire, which has already consumed 25,455 acres. About 43,000 more people were under an evacuation warning, which extended from the Santa Rosa suburbs to the Pacific Coast, said Meda Freeman, a county spokeswoman. Two years after the devastating Tubbs fire killed 22 people in the region, officials were taking no chances with the menacing Kincade fire and the threat of high winds that could spread the flames overnight. County officials ordered the mandatory evacuations of 50,000 people on Saturday, and Pacific Gas and Electric announced it would shut off power for almost a million customers in Northern California.
The mandatory evacuation was the county’s largest in at least 25 years, Sheriff Mark Essick said, and it covered some residents who had already been preparing to lose power. “The next 72 hours are going to be challenging,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon. “I could sugarcoat it but I’m not. We’re in an anticipatory stage that is rather anxiety inducing.”
Michael and Deborah Bailey were hunkering down in their house among the county’s vineyards on Saturday, defying the evacuation order and preparing for their second blackout this week by powering up a generator and figuring out where to send their horses. Like many Californians, they were frustrated to lose power, again. State fire officials hoped that by preparing for the worst-case scenario, they could avoid major destruction from the Kincade fire, which has already consumed more than 25,000 acres. About 43,000 more people were under an evacuation warning, which extended from the Santa Rosa suburbs to the Pacific Coast, said Meda Freeman, a county spokeswoman.
PG&E said it would begin cutting power to 940,000 homes and businesses — which could affect as many as 2.7 million people — on Saturday afternoon and that residents should plan to spend at least two days without electricity. Emergency responders warned residents of Marin County — which includes Sausalito, San Rafael, Tiburon and Novato — that power restoration could take up to five days.
“People are acting crazy,” said Ryan Marshall, 19, who was driving from Windsor to San Jose with a golden retriever, a golden lab and a pet California kingsnake. “It’s just another manic escape like the one that happened two years ago.”
Beverlee Sagon and Jerry Brendlin, who were evacuating to Reno, Nev., with friends on Saturday, still freeze when they see a fire truck with its lights on. Two years ago they had to flee their home just north of Santa Rosa in the middle of the night.
“We had planned to stay up all night tonight just taking turns sleeping because it was so scary waking up out of a dead sleep,” said Ms. Sagon, 64, whose house survived the Tubbs fire.
Not everyone was eager to flee. Michael and Deborah Bailey were hunkering down in their house among the county’s vineyards, defying the evacuation order and preparing for their second blackout this week by powering up a generator and figuring out where to send their horses.
Like many Californians, they were frustrated to lose power, again.
“They just turned it on yesterday afternoon around 4, and now they’re going to turn it off again,” Mr. Bailey, 72, said of PG&E. “We’ve been madly running around filling up bathtubs with water.”“They just turned it on yesterday afternoon around 4, and now they’re going to turn it off again,” Mr. Bailey, 72, said of PG&E. “We’ve been madly running around filling up bathtubs with water.”
Sheriff Essick and state fire officials hoped that by preparing for the worst-case scenario, they could avoid the devastation that the Tubbs fire wrought in the region in 2017, killing 22 people and destroying 5,600 buildings. The authorities urged people to not put emergency workers in danger by refusing to flee, noting that one firefighter had already been taken to a hospital after protecting two residents with a fire shield. The Kincade blaze, which started Wednesday, has been fueled by the steep topography of the densely forested area. It was 10 percent contained on Saturday afternoon and had forced 2,000 people to evacuate earlier in the week.
“This is a life-threatening situation and a danger to our entire town,” said Dominic Foppoli, the mayor of the Town of Windsor, which is about 60 miles north of San Francisco and whose nearly 28,000 residents were all ordered to evacuate. Officials also ordered the evacuations of all 12,000 residents of Healdsburg, a nearby city. Winds were forecast to reach 80 miles per hour and were expected to pick up Saturday evening, with some of the strongest blowing through between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning through Monday morning, urging residents to prepare for high winds and low humidity — a combination that intensifies fires.
The Kincade blaze started Wednesday and has been fueled by the steep topography of the densely forested area. It was 10 percent contained on Saturday morning and had forced 2,000 people to evacuate earlier in the week. On Saturday afternoon, the county fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, which were also used during the Tubbs fire, were buzzing with mobile command units, large food stations and a sea of tents and trailers housing more than 2,000 firefighters and related personnel.
Winds are forecast to reach 80 miles per hour and are expected to pick up Saturday evening, with some of the strongest winds blowing through between 3 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning through Monday morning, urging residents to prepare for a combination of high winds and low humidity that is ripe for fires. As anxiety grew, local governments tried to calm those who will see their lights go out — again — just as the sun begins to fade.
As anxiety grew on Saturday, local governments tried to calm those whose lights will go out — again — just as the sun begins to fade. The utility pre-emptively shut off power to more than 27,000 customers in Sonoma County this past week as part of an effort to prevent sparks from its equipment during dry and windy conditions. While a state investigation will be required to determine the cause of the Kincade fire, the utility has said a transmission tower nearby malfunctioned shortly before it began. Its stock price plummeted about 30 percent on Friday to $5.08, a small fraction of its 52-week high of $49.42.
“You can imagine there’s frustration,” said Molly Rattigan, a spokeswoman for Napa County, where 9,500 utility customers could lose power. “For some of those impacted, this is the third time that their power will be turned off. The third time in two weeks.” PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January after amassing tens of billions of dollars in liability related to two dozen wildfires in recent years.
The utility pre-emptively shut off power to more than 27,000 customers in Sonoma County this past week as part of an effort to prevent sparks from its equipment during dry and windy conditions. While a state investigation will be required to determine the cause of the Kincade fire, the utility has said a transmission tower nearby malfunctioned shortly before it began. Officials have been trying to emphasize to residents that PG&E is calling the shots, and the governor and furious state representatives said the company had shown it was not capable of consistently providing power to Californians.
County officials have been trying to emphasize to residents that PG&E is calling the shots, and furious state representatives said this weekend that the company had shown it was not capable of consistently providing power to Californians.
“PG&E is a failure at every level,” said State Senator Jerry Hill, a Bay Area Democrat who said the courts should take control of the company. “PG&E should no longer be allowed to do business in California.”“PG&E is a failure at every level,” said State Senator Jerry Hill, a Bay Area Democrat who said the courts should take control of the company. “PG&E should no longer be allowed to do business in California.”
Mr. Hill, who is the chair of the energy subcommittee, said that 940,000 customers translates to roughly 2.5 to 2.7 million people when accounting for families and others who share addresses. Senate Leader Toni Atkins this week named Mr. Hill to a panel that will review PG&E’s handling of the power shut-offs. Mr. Hill, who is the chair of the State Senate’s energy subcommittee, said that roughly 2.5 million to 2.7 million people will lose power when accounting for families and others who share addresses.
Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said on Saturday the utility understood the impact of the shut-offs on Californians but had no other choice because of the severe winds, which he said was predicted to be “the most serious weather situation” the region had experienced in recent memory. At the news conference, Mr. Newsom said PG&E made improvements to some of its operations since a botched power shut-off two weeks ago, when the utility’s website crashed twice and information technology experts from the state were required to help fix the problems. But he said that the utility continued to fail in its communication, and that some customers did not receive notification of the weekend’s blackouts until four hours before they were about to lose power.
“We would only take this decision for one reason — to help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to our customers and communities,” Mr. Lewis said in a statement. The governor also reiterated his frustration with PG&E’s decision to shut off power for hundreds of thousands of customers, rather than the more surgical approach taken by the state’s other two investor-owned utilities, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.
PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January after amassing tens of billions of dollars in liability related to two dozen wildfires in recent years. As speculation grew that its equipment might be the cause of the Kincade fire, its stock price plummeted about 30 percent on Friday to $5.08, a fraction of its 52-week high of $49.42. “A society as industrious and entrepreneurial and innovative as ours should not have to face a choice between public safety and public blackouts,” Mr. Newsom said.
On Friday, Andy Vesey, PG&E’s chief executive for utility operations, said drought, dead trees, high winds and low humidity had combined for a potential disaster even more severe than some other recent fires. Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said on Saturday that the utility understood the impact of the shut-offs on Californians but had no other choice because of the severe winds, which he said were predicted to be “the most serious weather situation” the region had experienced in recent memory.
On Friday, Andy Vesey, PG&E’s chief executive for utility operations, said that drought, dead trees, high winds and low humidity had combined for a potential disaster even more severe than some other recent fires.
“These places we all love have effectively become tinder boxes,” Mr. Vesey said. “This is an extraordinary change that we’re living through. At this moment it is part of our lives in California and part of keeping us safe.”“These places we all love have effectively become tinder boxes,” Mr. Vesey said. “This is an extraordinary change that we’re living through. At this moment it is part of our lives in California and part of keeping us safe.”
Some of the people who previously evacuated had stayed at a Red Cross shelter in Healdsburg, which volunteers said housed 156 people on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Sonoma County residents scrambled to stock up and ship out on Saturday. Manoj Ghimire said he had already sold out of ice and water and seen a spike in people buying beer and milk when he learned the power at Windsor Fast & Easy Mart would be cut off.
Cristian Calvillo, 19, was nearing the 24-hour mark as a Red Cross volunteer at the shelter on Friday. He and his family had to evacuate during the Wine Country fires in 2017, which inspired him to prepare to help others during another disaster. As the smoke crept closer and patrol planes whizzed overhead, Ms. Sagon and Mr. Brendlin jumped into their friends’ cars and hit the road, leaving their own Buick with mechanical troubles in a parking lot.
“It’s scary,” Mr. Calvillo said. “It’s not too long ago, what happened, and now they’re back in the same situation moving out of their houses. Some people will lose their houses.” “We’re just hoping it’s here when we get back,” Ms. Sagon said. “But if it isn’t, it wasn’t meant to be.”
Lauren Hepler reported from Healdsburg, Calif., and Ivan Penn reported from Burbank, Calif. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting from New York. Lauren Hepler reported from Healdsburg, Calif., and Ivan Penn from Burbank, Calif. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Neil Vigdor, Mariel Padilla and Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting from New York.