Frustration growing as shutoffs continue
Fallout: Outages may affect more than 2 million, cost $1 billion
Unprecedented power outages swept across Northern California on Wednesday as the fireprevention strategy of a beleaguered utility darkened homes, closed schools and businesses and ignited mass frustration, even as more shutoffs loomed for hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents as the day ended.
The outages could last into next week, affect more than 2 million people and, by some estimates, cost businesses and residents more than $1 billion.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. initiated the blackouts to avoid a breakout of winddriven wildfires from its power lines and equipment, and by Wednesday night the company had succeeded in bringing tens of thousands of customers back online. But for many residents and business owners, it was difficult to see beyond aggravation and anger.
In Sonoma, Napa, Marin and Solano counties, where 141,000 residences and businesses lost power starting after midnight, cars collided in intersections where signals were out and residents packed their freezers with ice.
Customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties awaited their turn, as PG&E prepared to begin shutting off power in those counties late Wednesday.
With the lights still on, Santa Clara County officials declared a state of emergency, and asked federal and state officials to do the same. The outage could overwhelm county services, said Dave Flamm, deputy director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management.
“The recognition that we’re potentially going to have over 100,000 individuals without power for a number of days and not knowing the exact duration of that event ... we want to ensure that we’re properly postured and placing the right gravity on this event,” Flamm said.
Utility officials said a “severe wind event” expected across the northern part of the state prompted the drastic move, with an estimated 750,000 customers in Northern and Central California losing power in waves, beginning with the northernmost areas and moving south. The number of customers potentially impacted dropped Wednesday evening when PG&E said about 40,000 customers in Kern County would not lose power.
While electric companies typically avoid outages whenever possible, the hard math for PG&E is that the outrage provoked by leaving millions of irate California ratepayers in the dark is preferable to the risk of causing another wildfire like last year’s Camp Fire in Butte County, which killed 85 people and destroyed 14,000 homes. That fire’s victims have filed more than $7 billion in insurance claims against the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.
PG&E said just before noon that shutoffs were complete in the 20 northern counties first in line — with about 500,000 customers without power. By 6 p.m., electricity had been restored to about 44,000 of those customers, and PG&E said that another 60,000 to 80,000 customers in the Sierra would be back up and running by the end of the night.
The blackouts could last up to a week for some customers, because even after the weather improves, PG&E must check lines before restoring services, a process expected to take up to five days.
The crisis continued to prompt runs on gas stations and grocery stores on Wednesday. The city of Morgan Hill said it would initiate a curfew overnight to ward off potential looting.
Business owners said the shutoff would hit hard, with hotels, ice cream parlors and even crematoriums trying to figure out what to do without electricity while contemplating the loss of revenue.
Caltrans had to scramble after realizing the busy Caldecott Tunnel on Highway 24 in the East Bay could not remain open without power. Workers successfully installed emergency generators to keep the four bores open.
Many schools across the region were closed Wednesday, though some districts managed to keep campuses open as PG&E pushed back the timing of the blackouts. Far more schools faced closure Thursday. Mills College and Holy Names College, both in Oakland, canceled classes Wednesday and Thursday. UC Berkeley canceled classes on Wednesday and was on standby for Thursday.
Politicians lambasted PG&E’s management and questioned why such a large portion of the state was included in the shutoff area.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, DSan Francisco, who has proposed legislation to limit power shutoffs, tweeted that the outages represent a “completely unacceptable state of affairs.”
“We can’t let PG&E normalize these mass blackouts,” he wrote.
Rep. Jared Huffman, DSan Rafael, was similarly critical. His district runs from Marin County to Oregon and has been hit by numerous devastating fires. He said he understands the need to prevent similar disasters.
However, “When this is over we must know why PG&E cast such a broad net,” Huffman wrote on social media. “Widescale shutdowns are not a sustainable solution.”
Acknowledging the impact of the shutoff, Michael Lewis, PG&E’s senior vice president of electric operations, said safety is the top priority.
“We understand the effects this event will have on our customers and appreciate the public’s patience as we do what is necessary to keep our communities safe and reduce the risk of wildfire,” he said in a statement.
That explanation didn’t sit well with a lot of residents in North Bay counties, where ice, gas and patience were in short supply. At the Nob Hill Foods market in Napa, shopper Jonathan Robinson, 59, said he was frustrated.
“I’m not sure PG&E needed to do this,” he said. “They’ve known about the fire danger for a long time. This is not necessary. PG&E hasn’t done its job.”
Power at the market was still on, but at a Chevron station across the street, electricity was off and the station was closed. Nearby traffic signals were off as well, and traffic backed up for blocks.
Tourists and the homeless also felt the pain. Cristina Holtz, who is on what she called the trip of her life in celebration of her 40th birthday, looked crushed when she saw the closure sign at Muir Woods in Marin County.
“I am from Romania and I’ve been wanting to see this for 35 years since I was a kid and a friend showed me a postcard,” Holtz said. “I’ve never seen a redwood tree and I’ve been traveling a lot and I just wanted to see it with my own eyes just like the postcard. I wanted to see these trees so badly.”
In Santa Rosa, 24yearold Ben Reed didn’t have a home where the power could go off, but nonetheless said the outage was “freaking me out.” He was hoping to get into a shelter, but in the meantime was on a park bench.
“This outage thing sucks,” he said. “It’s hard to get anything to eat today. I walked to a gas station that was closed. I walked to a 7Eleven that was closed. I can’t find food anywhere.”
In counties farther south, residents and businesses braced for the outage. Julie Taylor, administrative assistant at Roselawn Cemetery in Livermore, said the business was putting off cremations at least through Thursday because of the anticipated outage.
“We run on gas and electricity and if we start a cremation, we’d prefer to finish it,” she said.
Cremations take, on average, about 90 minutes, depending on the weight of a body. If an outage were to happen in the middle of it, it could be disastrous, she said.
At Vanne Bistro in Berkeley, assistant manager Nathalie Pinzon said closing would cost the business $2,000 a day.
Nearby, at Lush Gelato, there were coolers at the ready in case the frozen product had to be moved to another store with power. The Berkeley site stood to lose up to $1,100 a day, said shift supervisor AJ Balano.
“Global warming is real y’all,” he said, shaking his head.
Not everyone was critical of the power company. The horror of recent fires was fresh in people’s minds, especially given the twoyear anniversary this week of the Tubbs Fire, which tore through Santa Rosa and killed 22 people.
At the Good Earth supermarket in Mill Valley, shopper Meghan Rower, 38, who was visiting from Charleston, S.C., said PG&E was doing the right thing.
“I know it’s probably a hindrance to everybody,” she said, “but I think it’s a good idea, given what’s happened.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, though, lambasted PG&E, saying a focus on shareholders rather than customers resulted in a utility woefully unprepared for the 21st century.
“They are in bankruptcy because of their terrible management going back decades,” he said at a bill signing Wednesday. “They’ve created these conditions.” San Francisco Chronicle staff writers
J.D. Morris, Michael Cabanatuan, Steve Rubenstein, Shwanika Narayan, Sarah Ravani, Tatiana Sanchez, J.K. Dineen, Kevin Fagan and Alexei
Koseff contributed to this story.