PG&E delays power cut to more than 135,000 Bay Area homes, businesses

Up to 137,000 Bay Area PG&E customers are to lose power tonight in parts of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, following the overnight shutdown of electricity to much of Northern California, according to PG&E and county officials.

PG&E issued an alert just after noon Wednesday — the time the utility had earlier said the power would be shut off to the Bay Area counties — saying the blackouts would start “later this afternoon and into early evening.” But officials in Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Alameda counties said Wednesday afternoon that PG&E told them to expect shutdowns to start around 8 p.m., and that the process of restoring power should start around noon Thursday.

San Mateo County tweeted that the shutoffs in southern and coastal areas of the county were expected to start between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., and Santa Cruz County also said the planned outage was delayed till 8 p.m.

But because PG&E must expect its lines after the fire danger abates, it could take up to five days after the risky conditions end for power to be fully restored, the utility said.

The planned fire-safety power shutdown in the four counties will be the second of three, which in total are expected to affect at least 2 million people.

Santa Clara County officials on Wednesday afternoon declared a local emergency, and asked the state and federal governments to follow suit, they announced at a news conference, adding that more than 100,000 individual people in the county could be affected by shutoffs.

The new shutdowns are part of a controversial response by the utility to the risk of wildfires caused by its equipment. PG&E has implemented an unprecedented “Public Safety Power Shutoff” that hit more than a half million homes and businesses in 22 counties early Wednesday, amid fears that strong winds could spark fires.

Among the already-affected areas are Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, which were devastated by deadly wildfires that roared through California’s wine country two years ago. In Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, the city fire department tweeted that the outage had caused several collisions, including five with injuries, at intersections without power. “Please slow down and treat all intersections without power as a four way stop,” the department tweeted.

City of Santa Rosa Police and Fire Departments have responded to multiple traffic collisions, including five with injuries, at intersections without power. Please slow down and treat all intersections without power as a four way stop. pic.twitter.com/IvgRQzJvzE

— Santa Rosa Fire Department (@SantaRosaFire) October 9, 2019

Early Wednesday morning, traffic began backing up around North Bay communities in the darkness as signal lights went dark.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. had notified local officials that an additional round of outages would come at noon Wednesday, cutting power to 234,000 customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alpine, Mariposa and San Joaquin counties, but today said those shutdowns would take place later in the afternoon and into evening.

The utility said about 137,000 homes and businesses in the four Bay Area counties would lose electricity. In Santa Cruz County, another 36,940 customers were to lose power this afternoon or evening.

“Power your electronic devices and cell phones, have flashlights and batteries, fill up your gas tanks, avoid driving if at all possible — signaling and traffic signals will be out,” San Jose Vice Mayor Charles “Chappie” Jones advised residents in a morning news conference.

PG&E at midnight Tuesday began shutting off electricity to 513,000 North Bay customers in Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba counties.

The decision to turn off power was based on forecasts of dry, hot and windy weather that increases risk of wildfires. PG&E said the warm windy weather would peak from Wednesday morning through Thursday morning, with gusts reaching 60 to 70 mph at higher elevations.

Despite caustic posts on social media from around the region describing an absence of wind so far, a PG&E spokeswoman said Wednesday that, “The wind event is about as strong as we had expected.” The National Weather Service tweeted Wednesday afternoon that winds would “continue to increase through the day and peak overnight.”

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday afternoon that strong winds were expected to start around 10 p.m.

Early Wednesday afternoon, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky in Saratoga and only a slight breeze. With the power shutdown looming, all the restaurants and other businesses lining the city’s main shopping district remained open. “I think the biggest trouble with all of this is the uncertainty of not knowing when it’s going to hit us,” said Orang Kamkar, owner of Studio O hair salon. “I’m surprised they (PG&E) can’t figure out the timing of this with all the technology we have.”

Kamkar said canceling appointments some people had spent weeks and months waiting for was not something he could bear, so he too stayed open despite the warnings. But lacking a backup generator, Kamkar said the suspense was stressful. “It’s not fun to be working with the fear of losing power, especially when you’re working at a hair salon. Electricity is important and if it goes off, we’re in trouble,” he said.

Clyde Zaya, owner of the Italian restaurant Bella Saratoga, said he didn’t have enough notice to go out and buy a generator so he decided to “wing it” and stay open as long as possible. “If it does happen, we’ll close up and everything will be thrown in the garbage,” Zaya said. “But at this point, I’m just staying optimistic.”

PG&E said a third round of outages may affect an additional 42,000 customers in undetermined locations in its southernmost service area.

All told, at least 2 million residents across Northern and Central California were expected to be affected.

“The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is our most important responsibility, which is why PG&E has decided to turn power off to customers during this widespread, severe wind event,” Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said in a statement. “We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire.”

The City of San Jose said it would open three community centers — Mayfair, Camden and Southside — where residents can charge cell phones and medical devices and get access to information, water and snacks.

At the Mayfair center in east San Jose on Wednesday afternoon, tables with charging stations waited, ready to power phones or medical devices, and jugs of water sat nearby. But as of just after 1 p.m., said Carolina Camarena, a spokeswoman for the city’s parks, recreation and neighborhood services department, the city had “not seen anyone yet” at any of the city’s three designated resource centers. Camarena said the city opened the centers to amplify PG&E’s efforts to provide services at Avaya Stadium. “Not everybody can get to Avaya Stadium,” she said, “especially not people in need.” All of San Jose’s community centers are open, and Mayfair, Camden and Southside were set up with charging stations that can handle multiple phones and medical devices.

Caltrans, after warning late Tuesday that it was preparing to close the Caldecott Tunnel on Highway 24 and the Tom Lantos Tunnels on Highway 1, said later that it expected the Caldecott and Tom Lantos tunnels would stay open, with generators brought to the Caldecott and power routed to the Tom Lantos tunnels through a substation unaffected by the shutoffs.

Palo Alto’s municipal utility advised residents that a power shutdown would affect customers West of Interstate 280 in the Palo Alto Foothills at noon, though it said it was unlikely that other areas of Palo Alto will be affected. The city said it draws electricity from PG&E’s transmission system, even though PG&E does not directly serve electricity to Palo Alto residents.

Santa Clara’s municipal utility, however, said it was not at risk from PG&E’s public safety power shutoff.

PG&E’s planned outages prompted a number of school districts and colleges around Northern California to close, and frustrated residents who questioned the shutdowns by the embattled utility, which is in bankruptcy over costs of deadly wildfires sparked by its equipment in recent years.

Jacob Stewart vented on Twitter that the power outage “is unacceptable, especially in America, doubly so in California.”

This #poweroutage is unacceptable, especially in America, doubly so in California. For decades, PG&E used their monoploy position to maximize profits and extract undue rents instead of updating equipment and safety measures. I hope @GavinNewsom has a plan to hold them to account

— Jacob Stewart (@barbarossajake) October 9, 2019

PG&E urged customers to check its website at http://www.pgealerts.com/psps, but the site wasn’t working Wednesday morning — or for most of Tuesday. San Jose officials directed residents to information on their own website, http://www.sanjoseca.gov/pgeshutoff.

Traffic began backing up around North Bay communities in the early morning darkness as signal lights went dark. The Marin Gateway Shopping Center in Marin City, anchored by Target, was without power Wednesday morning. Signal lights on Bridgeway and Coloma Street were out and temporary stop signs were put in place.

At a news conference Tuesday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf — whose city will be affected by the outages — called the prospect of a five-day power shutdown “unacceptable.” She added that the utility should be properly maintaining its equipment and investing in a system that doesn’t require such drastic safety measures.

“I will continue to urge PG&E to put the people before their shareholders, that this needs to be about public safety and not cost savings,” Schaaf said.

Across the Bay Area, there was confusion Tuesday night as public agencies struggled to put out updated information about whether schools and critical transportation corridors would remain open during the shutoff.

Myhanh Lopes, manager of the McCaulou’s clothing store in Montclair in the Oakland hills, was frustrated with the situation Wednesday. PG&E’s only contact with the store was a robocall around 10 a.m. that morning, she said, and she didn’t know how long the impending blackout would last, or if she would need to send her staff home. Closing the store for what could be days would put a big hit on the store’s profits, she said, especially since this time of year the store is busy selling Boy Scouts uniforms.“It will impact the whole community, not just retailers,” Lopes said. “It affects our lifestyle, our children, our everyday life.”

Barbers at the Montclair Barber Shop said business was slower than usual Wednesday, but they were prepared in case the power went out. One barber brought a headlamp in case the lights went out mid-haircut, and they had cordless clippers charging.

School districts in Oakland and West Contra Costa County initially said that dozens of schools would close for the shutdown, but later revised their plans as PG&E adjusted its timeline for the shutdowns.

The unprecedented move to preemptively turn off power to customers in 34 of California’s 58 counties came amid concerns that windy and dry conditions Wednesday and Thursday could ignite wildfires across the state. Parts of Northern and Central California could see winds of 40 to 55 mph with gusts of 60 to 70 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

“Tonight is when we expect the winds to reach their peak intensity, from about mid-evening all the way through about mid-morning Thursday,” said weather service meteorologist Duane Dykema in a phone interview early Wednesday morning. “That’s the period of greatest concern. That’s when we’re expecting some strong and gusty winds, especially in the hills in the North and East bays and also in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”

Dykema noted that some valley locations won’t see much wind at all.

“People living in say San Jose and Gilroy will probably be wondering what all the fuss is about,” he said.

It is by far the largest shutdown since PG&E said earlier this year that it would begin preemptively turning off power to mitigate wildfire risks, following the determination that the utility’s equipment was the cause of several massive blazes in 2017 and 2018, including the deadly Camp Fire, which killed 86 and destroyed the town of Paradise last year.

Staff writers George Avalos, Annie Sciacca, Ali Tadayon, Joseph Geha and Maggie Angst contributed to this story.

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