LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric began restoring power to Lake County late Thursday, nearly 48 hours after it cut power to the area as part of a massive public safety power shutoff in response to high winds and fire danger.
Approximately 37,403 Lake County customers were included in the shutoff, which began early Wednesday and was rolled out over dozens of counties and ultimately impacted 738,000 customer accounts, according to PG&E’s revised numbers.
The utility gave the “all clear” and began system inspections in Lake County to look for possible wind damage at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Company officials said there are 44 helicopters and 6,300 PG&E staff and contractors assigned to carry out inspections of the 25,000 miles of line that were deenergized across PG&E’s service area.
Early on Thursday evening, a helicopter was flying low over lines between Kit’s Corner and Lower Lake in what appeared to be a line inspection.
Safety patrols and inspections, which can only take place during daylight hours, concluded at nightfall. PG&E said customers will be restored once safety patrols, inspections and necessary repairs are complete.
PG&E said Thursday night that it had identified 11 instances of weather-related damage to its system in the shutoff-impacted areas.
Sumeet Singh, PG&E’s vice president for asset and risk management and the Community Wildfire Safety Program, said 77-mile-per-hour winds were tracked on Mount St. Helena, with wind speeds of 53 miles per hour reported in Placer County, 56 miles per hour in Butte County and 54 miles per hour in Santa Cruz County.
Late Thursday, PG&E said that more than half of customers impacted by the public safety power shutoff have had their power restored. About 426,000 out of a total 738,000 customers have been restored, including full restoration in Humboldt, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. At that point, about 312,000 customers remained without power.
Areas where all-clear has not yet been declared include portions of Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties as well as Kern County, where a third shutoff phase was implemented late Thursday morning impacting approximately 4,000 customers. PG&E said the weather conditions in Kern County are expected to continue into early Friday.
Residents in parts of Lake County reported that their power began to come on shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday.
Three percent of Lake County’s impacted customers had power restored as of 11:15 p.m. Thursday, PG&E said.
Clearlake and Lakeport officials said they were told by PG&E that 98 percent of power is expected to be restored to Lake County be 11 p.m. Friday.
Twenty-seven PG&E community resource centers remain open throughout the service area to provide water, phone charging stations, air-conditioned seating and restrooms for customers. More than 3,300 customers utilized the centers on Thursday.
The Clearlake Senior Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., is where Lake County’s community resource center is located. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora told the Clearlake City Council at its Thursday night meeting that the center had been busy.
Flora also reported that the Lake County Office of Emergency Service listed the Lake County Jail and Sutter Lakeside Hospital as priority facilities and asked PG&E to restore power to them first.
He lauded city employees who kept facilities working, with police conducting extra patrols. In addition, city staff, including Police Chief Andrew White, rigged some equipment to ensure that the wifi in Austin Park continued to work and was available to community members.
The Lakeport Police Department, like the Clearlake Police Department, also has put emphasis on increased patrols during the shutoff to protect the community, and both city halls have remained open and on generator power during the shutoff, with Lakeport also continuing to operate its water and sewer services.
The county of Lake, which purchased more generators earlier this year in response to the shutoff threat, kept facilities including the Lake County Courthouse open and operating, which in turn allowed the Lake County Superior Court to continue to operate this week.
Schools plan to reopen
In Lake County, the outage led to school closures beginning on Wednesday morning.
On Thursday night, the different districts were attempting to update parents through social media posts to let them know of the latest plans for resuming classes.
Lakeport Unified said that if power service was restored by 6 a.m. Friday, schools would reopen.
Likewise, Lucerne Elementary School reported at about midnight that classes would reopen on Friday. “We’ve missed you and are happy to have you back to school!” the school posted on its Facebook page.
However, Konocti Unified, Middletown Unified and Upper Lake Unified reported that they would be closed on Friday.
Kelseyville Unified did not post a status late Thursday.
Governor criticizes shutoff action; PG&E says shutoffs may be needed in future
In a Thursday afternoon briefing, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the shutoffs needed to be done in a more surgical way, and that this week’s event was done with broad strokes, impacting areas that didn’t have extreme weather.
He called the situation “unacceptable,” and promised to drive reforms and hold PG&E accountable.
Later on Thursday, PG&E President and CEO Bill Johnson acknowledged problems with how the company handled the public safety power shutoff, which he said is believed to be the largest event of its kind.
Johnson said they may need to do such shutoffs again but they will do them better next time.
He said the company commits to communicating with customers and communities with as much notice as possible, with as much clarity as possible and as frequently as possible.
“We did not deliver on that commitment this time,” Johnson said, referring to the Web site being overwhelmed by traffic, inconsistent maps and an overloaded call center.
“We were not adequately prepared to support the operational event,” Johnson said, adding, “This will improve.”
Johnson also said such shutoffs are “the best we can do today.”
PG&E also reported on Thursday that during the shutoff period, customers in impacted areas will not be billed. The company has paused disconnection and collection activities in those areas.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
PG&E begins restoring power to Lake County; some schools to remain closed Friday
- Elizabeth Larson
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