Due to fierce winds expected across Northern and Central California Saturday night, PG&E announced it will preemptively cut power to approximately 940,000 customers in an effort to prevent destructive fires.
The blackouts will affect roughly 90,000 more customers than previous estimates by the utility. As many as 2 million people total could be without power.
PG&E said the outages will affect parts of every county in the Bay Area except for San Francisco.
Here is a map of planned power shutoffs across the region:
Weather forecasts predict dry, hot and windy weather to hit the region between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday and last through Monday afternoon.
The power shutoffs will rollout in six phases, but the utility said times may change depending on weather conditions. The first round of shutoffs are expected to begin in some areas at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Here is a table of planned power shutoff times:
PG&E plans to turn off power to communities in stages. (Courtesy of PG&E)
“Charge any devices you might need, have water and nonperishable foods at your disposal, and if you have special medical needs, please be sure to have access to support and resources,” PG&E’s Utility President Andy Vesey said Friday.
The utility said the winds are likely to be stronger than those that fueled the North Bay firestorm of October 2017.
“This wind event is forecast to be the most serious weather situation that Northern and Central California has experienced in recent memory,” said Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of Electric Operations.
The planned shutoffs are more widespread than the ones earlier this month.
KQED’s Jeremy Siegel contributed to this report.
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