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Nevada County officials call on PG&E for more information sooner concerning power shutoffs

Nevada City Councilmember and former Mayor Duane Strawser explained looking up information with a code online during a power outage is not realistic.

NEVADA CITY, Calif. — Many people are in the dark, again, Wednesday after some uncertainty about whose power would go out and when. Local officials lamented the lack of clear communication from PG&E.

"We never quite know what, if anything, is going to happen or when it's going to go down," explained Nevada City Councilmember and former Mayor Duane Strawser. 

"They give us a window. We get warning messages via text message or answering machine messages at home. We are told that other parts of the county have already been shut off. I haven't verified that yet with my police department, yet. But we're just basically on stand by to see what happens," he continued.

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Strawser said the way PG&E communicates simply isn't user-friendly enough.

"What you get is the ability to go online and use about a 15-digit code to look up your area which is not realistic once the power is out. You have no power, you have no internet, and many of the cell phone towers don't function up here either once the power goes," Strawser told ABC10.

He said people then rely on more traditional media like radio and TV to get information. Being a businessman himself, he explained the timeliness of PG&E's messaging is important.

"They can definitely communicate in a way that is more efficient, so people could stay open till the last second, so people can prepare to shut down if they're truly going to shut down. We have others that actually aren't prepared because they assume they're not going to get shut down. So it's not a very clear message," said Strawser.

RELATED: PG&E power shutoffs ‘a serious worry’ for people with powered medical devices

Ray Leftwich also understands the frustration because he is the public works director with the city of Lincoln.

"We didn't find out until the early afternoon on Monday, till we got the first maps, till we got the first details showing what areas within the county would be out," explained Leftwich. "When we finally did, the incorporated city limits within the city of Lincoln were not included, so residents were not going to experience shutoffs. However, we did have some facilities outside the city limits that were going to be impacted."

Fortunately for Leftwich, he got the notification around 2 p.m. Wednesday that areas surrounding Lincoln would no longer be affected. He said he thinks PG&E is learning from its past mistakes.

"[PG&E] definitely has been improving their game," explained Leftwich.

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IN-DEPTH: The story behind PG&E's shutoffs: Fire - Power - Money. Inside California's burning crisis and how it's going to cost us all

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