LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric’s latest public safety power shutoff continued on Wednesday evening, leaving tens of thousands of Lake County residents – particularly in the south county – out of power, leading to the opening of a warming center.
Beginning at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, PG&E cut power to 12,854 customer accounts in Lake County, including 782 medical baseline customer accounts.
Impacted areas are Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Cobb, Hidden Valley Lake, Kelseyville, an area west of the city of Lakeport, Loch Lomond, Lower Lake and Middletown.
Those Lake County customer accounts were among an estimated 48,000 customer accounts in portions of Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama and Yolo counties that PG&E said it had power shut off on Wednesday due to a wind event that led to a red flag warning.
PG&E said wind speeds exceeding 50 miles per hour were recorded on Wednesday in most of those shutoff counties, including wind speeds over 70 miles per hour in Sonoma County.
The company said improved weather conditions – including some rain on Tuesday night and increased humidity levels – led to it removing approximately 83,000 customer accounts in El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sierra and Yuba counties as well as western Sonoma County from the shutoff area.
With the “all clear” for the shutoff not expected to take place for Lake County until early Thursday – and with nighttime temperatures forecast to drop into the 30s – on Wednesday evening the county of Lake opened an overnight warming center at the Middletown Library and Senior Center, located at 21256 Washington St., in response to the shutoff.
The warming center, which opened at 6 p.m. Wednesday, will remain open until 8 a.m. Thursday. It will be staffed throughout the night by the county of Lake’s Care and Shelter Team. Cots, blankets and snacks will be provided.
On Wednesday, the public safety power shutoff resulted in a number of school closures in the Konocti and Middletown Unified school districts and for several preschools run by the Lake County Office of Education.
Konocti Unified reported on Wednesday evening that East Lake School and Pomo School will be open on Thursday with buses running their regular routes. However, all other sites without power in the district will be closed on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, Middletown Unified and the Lake County International Charter School also reported that their schools would be closed on Thursday, with classes anticipated to resume on Friday.
The Lake County Office of Education’s Clearlake Creativity School and its preschools at Burns Valley, Lower Lake and Middletown also will be closed Thursday, according to Rob Young, the Office of Education’s emergency preparedness and special projects coordinator.
PG&E said Wednesday evening that five community resource centers – offering blankets, water, snacks and electronics charging – are remaining open in Lake County during the outage from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The centers in Lake County will be at the following locations:
– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake;
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport;
– Twin Pine Casino & Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown;
– Robinson Rancheria Resort and Casino, 1545 State Highway 20, Nice;
– The Scotts Valley Pomo tribe’s Red Hills property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
Officials report on weather conditions, status of shutoff
During a Wednesday evening briefing, PG&E Chief Meteorologist Scott Strenfel said that, as predicted, the wind event arrived on Tuesday night and was continuing, with high winds recorded in areas including the North Bay.
He said that some rain overnight and cloud cover on Wednesday, along with elevated relative humidities, allowed PG&E to remove some areas from the outage scope.
Winds on Wednesday evening were expected to taper off in the Sacramento Valley while conditions remain gusty in the North Bay and the Sierra. Strenfel said a red flag warning remains in effect for a large part of Northern California.
He said the company expects to be able to call the all clear for most of the outage area at daybreak on Thursday morning or, possibly, earlier.
Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s senior director for emergency preparedness and response, said that as of shortly before the 5:30 p.m. briefing, they had received the all clear for the Northern Sacramento Valley, including 13,000 customer accounts in Shasta, Tehama and Glenn counties.
Quinlan said during the briefing that 43,000 customers still remained out of power.
On Wednesday night, PG&E reported that it was continuing to consider shutoffs for 14,000 customers in Butte, Plumas and Tehama counties and additional parts of Yuba County based on weather conditions.
Once the all clear is given, PG&E said inspections and any necessary repairs will be performed before lines are reenergized and power is restored.
PG&E said it has staged resources, including 45 helicopters and 5,500 employees, in the impacted areas to expedite inspections as soon as the all clear is received and it is light enough to inspect equipment.
Based on current weather predictions, PG&E said it’s possible that most customers will have power restored by late Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, Strenfel was asked about the potential for further shutoffs during the holidays.
He said he was hesitant to make a report but added that there does appear to be a significant storm coming to the region a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday which PG&E’s meteorology team is tracking.
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PG&E shutoff leaves thousands of Lake County residents out of power; warming center opens, some schools to remain closed
- Elizabeth Larson
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