Nearly 400,000 Customers Impacted by Sunday’s Wind Storm; PG&E Crews Have Restored Most Customers Who Lost Power
February 10 2020 - 7:50PM
Business Wire
PG&E Did Not Turn Off Power for Safety as
PSPS Thresholds Were Not Met
Gusts as High as 90 mph in Mountains; 50-plus
mph in Flatlands
More than 800 Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)
personnel, including electric and vegetation management crews in
the field, worked to prepare for and respond to outages and damage
from Sunday’s strong wind event.
From the time the winds started blowing early Sunday morning
through Monday afternoon, PG&E had restored nearly 400,000
customers who had their power knocked out due to winds and flying
debris. At 2 p.m. today, about 12,000 customers remained without
power, mostly in the East Bay and along the Central Coast. Crews
will continue to work to make the needed repairs to restore all
customers today.
The National Weather Service had issued wind advisories, and
PG&E’s own meteorologists had forecast an extended period of
high winds going into the weekend. PG&E issued a news release
on Friday to help prepare customers.
Winds Across PG&E’s Weather Network
On Sunday, notable higher-terrain wind gusts were recorded at
various weather stations: Pine Flat Road in Sonoma County (90 mph),
Mt. St. Helena in Napa County (87 mph), Mt. Umunhum in Santa Cruz
County (72 mph) and Grizzly Peak in Alameda County (62 mph).
Notable low-elevation wind gusts were recorded at Oakland
International Airport (53 mph), Fairfield (52 mph), Hayward (49
mph), Livermore (48 mph), Stockton (48 mph), Concord (47 mph) and
Vacaville (46 mph). The National Weather Service reported a 125-mph
gust at Alpine Meadows in Tahoe.
The high winds caused damage throughout PG&E’s service area,
much of it from falling trees and flying branches and debris.
PG&E activated 17 local emergency centers and moved crews to
areas hit hardest by the strong winds to facilitate restoration. As
crews were called to locations where outages had occurred, they
found damage including hundreds of downed spans of power lines and
dozens of broken poles, crossarms and transformers.
A PSPS Was Not Called
Although the wind speeds were similar to what was experienced
last October, the conditions did not meet the thresholds for
calling a Public Safety Power Shutoff as fuel and soil moisture
values remain high enough to mitigate wildfire danger.
No single factor drives a Public Safety Power Shutoff as each
situation is unique. PG&E carefully reviews a combination of
many criteria when determining if power should be turned off for
safety. These factors generally include, but are not limited
to:
- A Red Flag Warning declared by the National Weather
Service
- Low humidity levels, generally 20 percent and below
- Forecasted sustained winds generally above 25 mph and wind
gusts in excess of approximately 45 mph, depending on location and
site-specific conditions such as temperature, terrain and local
climate
- Condition of dry fuel on the ground and live vegetation
(moisture content)
- On-the-ground, real-time observations from PG&E’s Wildfire
Safety Operations Center and observations from PG&E field
crews
Preparation is the Key to Safety
As always, PG&E encourages customers to have a plan, prepare
for power outages and above all else, stay safe. Customers can
monitor local winds via www.pge.com/weather. Customers can get
updates on outages in their neighborhood through a variety of
channels.
- Contact our outage information line at 1-800-743-5002
- Access our Electric Outage Map online at pge.com
- Customers can also log-in to their account through pge.com and
sign up to receive proactive outage alerts through email, text or
phone
Storm Safety Tips
- Drive safely: When you’re behind the wheel, look out for
fallen limbs and other debris in the roadways.
- Never touch downed wires: If you see a downed power
line, assume it is energized and extremely dangerous. Do not touch
or try to move it—and keep children and animals away. Report downed
power lines immediately by calling 911 and by calling PG&E at
1-800-743-5002.
- Use flashlights, not candles: During a power outage, use
battery-operated flashlights, and not candles, due to the risk of
fire. If you must use candles, please keep them away from drapes,
lampshades, animals and small children. Do not leave candles
unattended.
- Have a backup phone: If you have a telephone system that
requires electricity to work, such as a cordless phone or answering
machine, plan to have a standard telephone or cellular phone ready
as a backup.
- Have fresh drinking water, ice: Freeze plastic
containers filled with water to make blocks of ice that can be
placed in your refrigerator/freezer during an outage to prevent
foods from spoiling. Blue Ice from your picnic cooler also works
well in the freezer.
- Use generators safely: Customers with standby electric
generators should make sure they are properly installed by a
licensed electrician in a well-ventilated area. Improperly
installed generators pose a significant danger to customers, as
well as crews working on power lines. If using portable generators,
be sure they are in a well-ventilated area.
- Turn off appliances: If you experience an outage, unplug
or turn off all electrical appliances to avoid overloading circuits
and to prevent fire hazards when power is restored. Simply leave a
single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your
appliances back on one at a time when conditions return to
normal.
- Safely clean up: After the storm has passed, be sure to
safely clean up. Never touch downed wires and always call 811 or
visit 811express.com at least two full business days before digging
to have all underground utilities safely marked.
Other tips can be found at pge.com/beprepared
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas
and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San
Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers
some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in
Northern and Central California. For more information, visit
www.pge.com/ and www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/index.page.
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