West county warming center opens in Guerneville

Sonoma County has opened a temporary warming center for west county residents, many of whom have been without electricity since Saturday. The shelter opened Tuesday morning at the Guerneville Veterans Memorial Hall and will close at 8 p.m.

It is expected to be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day until Saturday, when a “code blue” advisory about near-freezing overnight temperatures is expected to end.

In a Facebook post, west county Supervisor Lynda Hopkins jabbed at PG&E as she announced the availability of the center.

“It’s really nice that PG&E stepped up with a West County Charging Station, right?” Hopkins asked.

“Oh wait, just kidding. They didn’t. The closest PG&E ‘Community Resource Center’ is in Sonoma, a 1-hour drive away under the best circumstances, and these aren’t the best circumstances with road closures and mandatory evacuation zones and a gigantic fire looming.

“BUT NEVER FEAR, THE COUNTY IS HERE! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I never thought I’d get to say that.)”

The center will be stocked with blankets and coffee and will have charging areas so residents can power devices, Hopkins wrote. Information about shelter availability also will be provided for those whose homes are too cold to sleep. Temperatures are expected to drop to a low of about 38 degrees late Tuesday with light winds, the National Weather Service reported.

“Remember: we can’t control PG&E,” Hopkins said in the post. “We’re trying to make the best of a bad situation, and trying to keep you warmed up and charged up in the middle of a disaster.”

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office downgraded a mandatory evacuation order in Guerneville and several other west county communities to a warning Monday afternoon, two days after the agency told residents to leave due to the Kincade fire burning to the northeast.

Much of west county remained without power Tuesday as PG&E began its fourth wave of outages in Sonoma County in the past month, the utility’s outage map shows. The utility has defended its shut offs, saying they are necessary to prevent its power equipment from sparking wildfires during windy weather.

The Guerneville Veterans Memorial Hall is located at 16225 First St. in Guerneville.

It’s possible the warming center will close before Saturday if the code blue advisory is lifted early, said Jorge Rodriguez, a spokesman with the Sonoma County Emergency Operations Center.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.