CALIFORNIA, USA — In Winters, where the temperature in the shade is 105, generators were the main source of power at Bonovich Ranch. Geg Bonovich said he and his family have been living there for 40 years.
“The plan is to get the hell out of dodge. We are leaving,” Bonovich said.
Bonovich has been without power since 2 a.m. Tuesday. He’s a PG&E customer. His power was turned off for PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoff. That’s when PG&E cuts power to certain areas to prevent wildfires due to high wind along with humid and dry conditions.
“Part of me is saying it’s a good idea because we don’t want big wildfires. We’ve had the LNU fire, Ragg Fire, the County Fire all out here in the past, but I think if PG&E was handled properly and managed properly, especially in the past, I think the chickens have come home to roost. And now, they have to do this protect their backsides,” Bonovich said.
Bonovich is headed to Lake Tahoe. He’s already moved his 85-year-old mother, because she can’t be without air conditioning. Even with $200,000 of solar panels and six generators you still can’t run the air conditioner. PG&E called this week an unusual and severe heat event.
Paul Moreno with the power company says they are staying up but feel confident there is enough power supply. “For the past 50 years where we have been tracking weather data closely, we’ve only seen 18 events approaching this magnitude,” said Moreno.
Other counties where PG&E preemptively cut power include Butte, Colusa, Napa, Shasta, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo. But they are asking all customers to conserve power from 4 to 9 p.m. this week.
PG&E said they were in the process of restoring power to about 2,000 customers impacted by the power shutoffs. Due to favorable conditions, PG&E delayed de-energization for about 10,000 additional customers.
More information on the outages can be found at pge.com/pspsupdates.
WATCH ALSO:
