PG&E ‘not speculating’ on cause of fires in county

Utility working on safely restoring power

SANTA CRUZ >> With 15,032 customers still without power in Santa Cruz County, PG&E focused Wednesday on safely restoring power to those left in the dark by wind-driven damage to utility infrastructure.

On Tuesday, storm-related downed trees caused numerous road closures that blocked PG&E crews from accessing neighborhoods impacted by the outages, agency spokeswoman Mayra Tostado said Wednesday afternoon.

Highway 9 was blocked at several locations, including south of Highway 35 at Glen Arbor Road in Ben Lomond and south of Felton. Glen Arbor Road, from Newell Creek Road to the bridge, was not accessible because of a downed tree, Tostado said. Other reported closures included East Zayante Road at Conference Drive in Felton, Graham Hill Road at Lockwood Lane in Scotts Valley, part of Soquel San Jose Road in Soquel and Thompson Road at Carlton Road in Watsonville. Parts of White Road in Aptos also experienced closures.

“PG&E crews are working closely with local law enforcement and partners to safely clear hazards to allow crews to make necessary repairs and restore power to customers safely and as quickly as possible, including Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley,” Tostado said.

At this time, the agency is sending crews to the most impacted areas and using helicopters to speed up restoration efforts. Parts of Scotts Valley and Boulder Creek are now reopened as hazards have been cleared, Tostado said, and crews are actively working to restore power by late this afternoon. In areas where damage is “significant,” she said, power will be restored as quickly as possible.

As of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the most affected residents were spread across several cities:

• Aptos: 550

• Ben Lomond: 2,476

• Boulder Creek: 3,640

• Brookdale: 332

• Felton: 3,093

• Santa Cruz: 1,875

• Scotts Valley: 1,842

• Soquel: 176

• Watsonville: 1,048

More than 350 electric distribution and transmission crews, 302 electric troublemen and 65 substation switchmen are working on repairs and restoration statewide.

Across the region, 110 distribution poles, 218 cross-arms, 121 transformers and 66,000 feet of primary conductor need to be replaced. Damage assessments are still being conducted, Tostado said.

When asked if PG&E stands by its decision not to include Santa Cruz County, or parts of it, in the active Public Safety Power Shutoff and whether it may have prevented the fires sparked in the windstorm, Tostado said the county did not meet the factors for a shutoff. These factors include low humidity levels, a forecast of high winds (particularly sustained winds), a red flag warning from the National Weather Service, dry material on the ground and low moisture content in live vegetation and real-time ground observations from PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center.

“We will not speculate on the cause and are focused on supporting CAL FIRE and first responders as they work to make the areas safe, while our crews work safely and as quickly as possible to restore power to areas experiencing wind-related outages,” Tostado said.

PG&E is offering a community resource center Wednesday night. According to a tweet from Santa Cruz County, those impacted by the ongoing outages will be offered refreshments.