California officials: Batten down the hatches
1 million residents could lose power as winds whip up
Northern California officials urged residents to leave homes in the hills, secure backyard furniture and other loose items and have an evacuation plan ready ahead of powerful winds that could lead to widespread electricity outages and leave more than 1 million people in the dark.
Pacific Gas & Electric said it could black out customers starting Sunday in 38 counties to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires as bone-dry, windy weather returns to the region. In the San
Francisco Bay Area, some customers in every county except for San Francisco could see their power shut off.
The safety shutoffs were expected to begin as early as Sunday morning and last into Tuesday, affecting 466,000 homes and businesses, or more than 1 million residents, assuming between two and three people per home or business customer.
The winds that could potentially be the strongest the region has seen in 20 years could topple trees and power lines or or other equipment that in recent years have been blamed for igniting massive and deadly blazes in central and Northern California, officials said.
East of San Francisco, the city of Berkeley recommended residents consider leaving the hills before Sunday afternoon, especially if they would have trouble getting out quickly during a fire.
In neighboring Oakland, at least 10 parks will close Sunday and Monday. Cities throughout the region planned to open emergency operations centers and add additional police officers and firefighters to proactively patrol. Officials were also encouraging people to have their cellphones fully charged or if they have a landline, have an old-fashioned phone and not one that depends on electricity.
“I would ask all of the people who live in highimpact areas mimic us and plan ahead of time and do the planning with their neighbors, with their families and within their own households so that if they are asked to evacuate they’re ready and not just then starting to figure it out,” Oakland Assistant
Fire Chief Robert Lipp said.
While about one-third of the affected customers will be in the Bay Area, cuts are predicted to encompass parts of the Sacramento Valley, the northern and central Sierra Nevada, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Central Coast and parts of southern Kern County.
Eight of the 10 deadliest fires in California history have occurred in October or November.
The projected shutoffs included 19,000 customers in parts of Butte County, where a November 2018 blaze ignited by PG&E equipment destroyed much of the town of Paradise and killed 85 people. A blaze in the Oakland hills in October 1991 killed 25 people.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for many areas, predicting winds of 35 mph or higher in San Francisco and lower elevations and up to 70 mph in mountains. The concern is that any spark could be blown into flames sweeping through tinder-dry brush and forestland.
It said the conditions could equal those during devastating fires in California’s wine country in 2017 and last year’s Kincade Fire. Fire officials said PG&E transmission lines sparked the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County last October, which destroyed hundreds of homes and caused nearly 100,000 people to flee.
“Given that vegetation is now at or near record dryness levels — much as it was prior to the North Bay firestorm in October 2017 — this is a very concerning forecast,” Daniel Swain, climate scientist with UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, wrote.