September 8, 6:40 p.m. update
PG&E officials said they could return power to up to 35,000 customers in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties on Wednesday morning due to better weather conditions.
Those PG&E customers would have to wait for their power to return because crews won't have enough daylight to inspect the lines.
PG&E officials said 2,700 employees on the ground, 60 helicopters, and an airplane to inspect the power lines.
Schools closed due to PG&E power shutoffs:
Original story:
Hundreds of thousands of people across California are in the dark Tuesday morning after PG&E turned off power to try and prevent wildfires.
PG&E reports it cut power as part of a Public Safety Power Shutoff to about 167,000 customers in 21 counties that stretch across the Sierra Foothills, Sacramento Valley, Northern Sierra and parts of the North Bay. Affected counties include Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba.
PG&E opens resource centers for residents who lost power in Nevada City:
PG&E said it plans to shut off power in Kern County around 2 p.m. on Tuesday. A utility spokesman said it is aiming to make the planned shutoffs, “smarter, shorter and smaller. "
The utility plans to restore power on Wednesday once weather conditions improve.
View the map below to see what areas are impacted by the blackouts. Click HERE to see if your address is in the affected areas. To download a full list of locations, click HERE.
Community resource centers will be available during the planned blackouts, where people can charge their items, get information, get water, snacks, and other essentials. A full list of community centers is available on the PG&E website.
Resources on PG&E PSPS:
- PG&E power shutoffs resources | Need to know
- How do you prepare for PG&E Power Safety Shutoffs | You tell us
- Your questions on PG&E power outages, answered
- How to keep food safe and cold during a power outage
- PG&E could cut your power to prevent wildfires. Is it time to own a backup generator?
- PG&E launches power shutoff forecasting site
PG&E’s equipment has been linked to more than 20 wildfires, including the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, the utility has updates its Public Safety Power Shutoff plan in 2019 to include the de-energization of the big transmission lines during fire-favorable weather conditions.
That means more communities are facing the potential for days-long power shutoffs, as PG&E preemptively shuts off the power, waits for the weather conditions to pass and then inspects every inch of the de-energized lines to make sure it’s safe to turn the power back on.
PG&E Resources: