Historic Power Outages Continue in Northern California
PG&E late Thursday afternoon started restoring power to several areas impacted by proactive outages amid high fire danger.
While many of the hundreds of thousands of customers across Northern and Central California were still in the dark, the utility gave its crews an all clear to start safety inspections on equipment after weather conditions improved. Officials said restorations efforts would begin in many areas impacted by outages.
PG&E's utility's public safety power shutoffs — prompted by dry, gusty weather — left roughly 278,000 customers across the Bay Area to carry out their daily tasks without electricity.
PG&E on Thursday afternoon said improving weather conditions allowed crews an "all clear" to perform safety inspections and that restoration efforts would begin in many areas impacted by outages.
"We faced a choice here between hardship on everyone or safety, and we chose safety," PG&E CEO and President Bill Johnson said. "I do apologize for the hardship this has caused, but I think we made the right call on safety."
Officials late Thursday afternoon reported power was restored to most of San Jose and Morgan Hill areas impacted. Several East Bay cities, including Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda also reported PG&E crews were in the process of restoring power to the areas.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said that the shutoffs affected about 20,000 customer accounts, amounting to roughly 60,000 residents.
The shutoffs also cost the city about $500,000 in extra staffing hours, fuel and more, Liccardo said.
"There's no question that this cost should be borne by PG&E," Liccardo said, adding that he is in discussions with Gov. Gavin Newsom's office about receiving compensation from the energy company.
Liccardo said the city experienced 68 stoplights without power Thursday morning, but that power had been restored to all but four by the evening.
He said the city was unsure when full power would be restored, but "we'll continue to press on until everyone receives power again."
Liccardo added that the city will continue to push for new legislation and initiatives, locally and in Sacramento, that will combat the effects of the ongoing climate crisis.
"We need to address the impacts of climate change, they're quite real and we felt them today," Liccardo said.
The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.
Photo Credit: NBC Bay Area
from NBC New York - Top Stories https://ift.tt/2ODcWgn
No comments: