PG&E’s electricity outage hits hardest in the North Bay

As an unprecedented mass of Sonoma County residents were heading out of harm’s way, Pacific Gas & Electric began a historic electricity shut-off to nearly 1 million customers across Northern California, with the greatest impact on residents and businesses in the North Bay.

The total number of homes and businesses across 36 counties scheduled to be affected by the preemptive power shutdown grew by almost 90,000 customers from PG&E’s Friday projection of 850,000. The extraordinary measure came in anticipation of historic winds with gusts of up to 80 mph that have the potential to down power lines or damage other electrical equipment located in dried-out, fire-prone areas.

“These are big winds. The strongest winds that we’ve had in a number of years,” Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s director for emergency preparedness and response, said during a Saturday press conference. “It’s a very large event for us to manage, but we’re confident we can do this and we can do it safely.”

The 256,000 North Bay customers included in the San Francisco-based utility’s second power shut-off in two weeks - and third this month - can expect to be without power through at least Monday. Once the weather conditions improve and crews receive the all clear to begin restoring power, the company says it can take up to two days for the lights to turn back on, though in the two prior October outages the majority of customers saw their power return within 12 hours.

The company hoped it could have everyone’s power restored before another forecast weather system - this one of less intensity - arrives by late next week, PG&E CEO and President Andy Vesey said. That way customers could use the time to recharge devices and prepare for another potential shut-off, he said.

Marin County was expected to see the largest number without power, at more than 118,500 customers, representing 99% of the county’s 260,000 people.

The shutdown started at ?5 p.m. in Sonoma County, where the nearly 96,000 customers who were scheduled to have the power turned off was the second-largest total, according to PG&E officials. The San Francisco-based utility delayed the shut-off by about an hour on Saturday because of what company officials said were changing weather conditions.

Thousands of homes and businesses in Rohnert Park and Petaluma were some of the first to go dark, with residents in eastern Santa Rosa also among the early outages. By 11 p.m., 94,452 customers in the county had lost power in a process that can take up to three hours once the company initiates a shutdown.

Andrew Fagan was watching the Michigan-Notre Dame college football game when his TV flickered off just after 5 p.m. The outage marked he and his wife’s third at their mobile home near the corner of Montecito Boulevard and Calistoga Road in Santa Rosa, and they’ve gotten used what he called “taxing.”

“I’ve started referring to them like Super Bowls, and this is ‘Outage III,’ said Fagan, 60. “I understand that the winds are going to be powerful … but I think they’re overdoing it. It just looks like the areas where they’re shutting off power are extreme and I’m not sure a utility should be making those decisions.”

Fagan was far from alone in his frustrations, particularly with the weekend shut-off representing the largest of the three. The first outage Oct. 8 included about 66,000 customers in Sonoma County and the second, which ended Friday, affected about 28,000 customers in the county.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has continued to lambaste PG&E and the state’s other two investor-owned utilities for how they have communicated about and executed the shutdowns, with a focus on populations with disabilities or who rely on electricity to survive.

On Saturday, Newsom announced the creation of a new team with the state’s Health and Human Services to ensure the medically vulnerable are having their needs met during the repeated shut-offs. The new unit’s first task will be working to coordinate outreach to residents who are dependent upon life-saving devices and medications that are in greater peril without power.

“Power shut-offs continue to put California’s most vulnerable residents at risk,” Newsom said in a written statement. “These proactive steps will help us protect medically vulnerable residents and ensure that there is a continuity of care for individuals in health and community care facilities across the state.”

More than 34,000 customers included in the outages that began Saturday - including 8,851 in the North Bay - are on PG&E’s medical baseline list. They receive discounted energy bills because they have medical needs that require the use of above-average amounts of power.

“We recognize the impact that these shut-offs have,” Vesey said during the Saturday press conference. “We don’t do this because it’s the easy thing for us to do. We do it because it’s the safe, right thing for us to do.”

Staff Writer Chantelle Lee contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.