Schools, universities and businesses remain closed Thursday as more than 625,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers in Northern California began a second day without electricity.
The second phase of shutoffs started at 11 p.m. Wednesday and caused hundreds of thousands of additional people to lose electricity. Overnight, police departments had extra personnel on the streets, and some areas instituted curfews.
A small wildfire in the affected area forced about 150 families to flee their homes in Moraga in Contra Costa County, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The fast-moving fire had burned about 40 acres as of early Thursday and was 60% contained.
Eventually, more than 800,000 customers across 34 counties in Northern California and central and coastal areas could see their power turned off. Economists told the Chronicle the outages could cost businesses and residents more than $1 billion. Some customers could be without electricity for up to a week because, even after the weather improves, PG&E must check all the lines before turning the power back on.
"It's just kind of scary. It feels worse than Y2K. We don't know how long," Tianna Pasche of Oakland told the Associated Press. "My two kids, their school situation keeps moving every second. It's not clear if we need to pack for a week and go out of town or what to do. So I'm just trying to make sure we have water, food, charging stations and gas."
"For me, this is a major inconvenience in my life as a parent but also, if it saves a life, I'm not going to complain about it," she said.
A state of emergency was declared for Santa Clara County. Meanwhile, in the city of Morgan Hill, a curfew was in place from 7 p.m. Wednesday night until 6:30 a.m. Thursday as authorities worked to reduce the possibility of crime in blackout areas.
Residents stocked up on groceries, batteries and gas ahead of the blackouts.
The preemptive outage stands to be one of the largest in the state's history as windy, dry conditions raise the risk for wildfires in the coming days.
PG&E said the shutoffs were being considered based on a fire weather watch from the National Weather Service. Winds up to 65 mph were expected in some areas, prompting the NWS to issue alerts for elevated, critical and extreme wildfire chances across large swaths of the state.
Windy conditions can cause power lines to spark fires when they are blown down or come into contact with trees or other vegetation. PG&E power lines have been blamed for several high profile fires in recent years, including the blaze that killed 86 people last year in Paradise, California.
Researchers have such said catastrophic fires could become more common as climate change leads to warmer weather and longer fire seasons.
While the outages will impact 800,000 PG&E accounts, many more actual individuals could be affected. Millions could face days without electricity, the Chronicle estimated.
Hospitals, municipalities and other agencies across the affected areas were prepared to have generators on stand by and were warning residents to stockpile supplies. Those who use medical equipment that relies on electricity were being warned to prepare for the outages and call for assistance if needed, and residents were being told to have go bags and emergency kits on hand.
Local police departments were warning drivers to beware of nonfunctioning traffic lights.
Elected officials and residents expressed anger over the blackouts.
"People should be outraged, as we are," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "No one is satisfied with this. No one is happy with this. But we have to get through this fire season."
Newsom has called on PG&E to upgrade infrastructure to make it less vulnerable and prevent massive outages such as this one.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf asked residents not to flood 911 lines with non-emergency calls, the AP reported. The city canceled all days off for police officers days in preparation for the outages.
"We all know the devastation that fires can cause," Schaaf said.
PG&E says safety is its first priority.
"This is a last resort," Sumeet Singh, head of the utility's Community Wildfire Safety Program, told the Chronicle.
At the Dollar General store in Paradise, the town that was mostly burned to the ground by the Camp Fire, shoppers were grabbing candles, gas cans, ice, flashlights, batteries and canned food. Ice chests were sold out Tuesday morning, manager Ben Humphries told the AP.
Humphries, who lost his home in last year's blaze, saw some irony in PG&E's aggressive preemptive power outages in the area now, after the company opted not to turn off the power ahead of the Camp Fire.
"I understand their concerns. But in my opinion, it's too little too late. We already had our town burned to the ground," Humphries said.
In addition to the 800,000 or so PG&E customers who could be impacted, more than 100,000 Southern California Edison customers in eight counties could also see preventive outages in southern portions of the state, according to the AP.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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