With a sweeping power outage still in place across 38 California counties, PG&E said Sunday that it’s preparing for yet another preemptive blackout because of a forecast extremely windy weather beginning Tuesday.
The company said that some of those who are currently without power may not have it restored until after an outage anticipated for Tuesday and Wednesday.
The utility shut down power to about 940,000 customers on Saturday evening as a dry cold front advanced south through the state and began a prolonged siege of extremely high winds.
The current outage – formally called a public safety power shutoff and designed to prevent fires sparked by live electrical lines – is the largest preemptive blackout declared so far, affecting roughly 2.5 million people.
In the hours after the shutoff, winds raged through the Sonoma County hills and mountains, with the highest recorded gusts topping 90 mph. The fierce winds pushed the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County southward, prompting massive evacuation orders.
Although winds eased somewhat during the day Sunday, gusts exceeding 70 mph were common in the area and complicated Cal Fire’s effort to stop the fire from spreading south from the outskirts of Healdsburg and Windsor into Santa Rosa or jumping U.S. 101 and beginning a run to the Sonoma County coast.
PG&E spokesman Paul Doherty said that the utility hopes to begin the process of restoring power Sunday night to customers along the North Coast and in the northern Sacramento Valley. Crews would begin the process of inspecting lines and turning power back on for other areas early Monday, he said.
But even as that restoration effort proceeds, Doherty said the company is preparing for the renewed onset of high winds Tuesday and Wednesday and is considering whether to impose a new public safety power shutoff in as many as 32 counties.
“We don’t have specifics on cities or counties or customer counts at this point,” Doherty said. He also said some of the hundreds of thousands left in the dark by the blackout that began Saturday may not have power restored until after the Tuesday-Wednesday outage.
“While we will make every effort to restore power to as many customers as possible who are currently out, because this is such a dynamic situation with changing weather conditions, some customers who are currently without power … may remain out through the next potential PSPS event,” Doherty said.
He cautioned that customers who do have power restored after the weekend shutdown may have only a brief window before the lights go out again.
“For those customers who are able to have their power restored between events, we urge them to use that opportunity to charge their devices, their phones, any medical equipment and that sort of thing,” he said.
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