Anger spreads at state’s fire-season blackouts
With no electricity for the fourth straight day yesterday, chef and caterer Jane Sykes realised she would have to throw out US$1000 ($1575) worth of food, including trays of brownies, cupcakes and pastry.
She also had little hope of getting a good night’s sleep — there was no way to run the machine she relies on to counter her apnoea.
“I don’t think PG&E really thought this through,” she lamented.
Frustration and anger mounted across Northern California yesterday as the state’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, began another round of widespread blackouts aimed at preventing its electrical equipment from sparking wildfires in high winds.
Millions of people have been without power for days as fire crews raced to contain two major wind-whipped blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes at both ends of the state: in Sonoma County wine country and in the hills of Los Angeles.
Across Northern California, people worried about charging cellphones and electric vehicles, finding petrol and cash, staying warm and keeping their food from spoiling. They donned headlamps at home and parked their cars outside inoperable automatic garage doors. Some ended up at centres set up by PG&E where people could go to power their electronics and get free water, snacks, flashlights and solar lanterns.
“There’s a hidden cost,” Sykes said. “Absolutely public safety above all else, but there’s a big financial loss for my profession, having to throw away a lot of hard work.”
PG&E said yesterday’s blackouts — the third round in a week — would affect about 1.5 million people, including 1 million still without power from a shut-off over the weekend.
PG&E’s decision to cut power comes after several past deadly wildfires, including one that killed 85 and destroyed the town of Paradise and plunged the company into bankruptcy.
PG&E, facing an estimated US$30 billion or more in liabilities, mainly from fires in 2017 and 2018, sought bankruptcy protection in January.
Despite the recent outages, PG&E's power lines may have started two fires over the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area and the massive blaze still burning in Sonoma County wine country, the utility said.