Thousands lose power in widespread Sonoma County outage

A transmission line failure Wednesday caused a power outage for the entire city of Healdsburg, plus about 6,000 other Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in northern Sonoma County, officials said.

The outage began just after noon, stretching into parts of Cloverdale and Geyserville.

By 3:30 p.m., PG&E had restored power for almost everyone involved, except about 275 of its customers in Cloverdale, according to utility spokesperson Deanna Contreras.

The city of Healdsburg, which operates its own utility system but is tied into PG&E’s grid, was one of the PG&E customers that lost power and was restored, Contreras said.

City officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but they said in a 12:40 p.m. Nixle alert that the entire city was experiencing a blackout.

The transmission line failure was the result of damaged PG&E equipment in Cloverdale, according to Contreras. She said the cause of the damage was under investigation.

As of 4 p.m., about 280 customers were still without power, according to the PG&E online outage center. The site listed 4:15 p.m. as an estimated time of restoration.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Matt__Pera.