PG&E shutoff could mean gas pumps may be inoperable, along with traffic lights and ATMs
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The prospect of a massive midweek power shutdown has public agencies across the Bay Area scrambling.
More than 600,000 PG&E customers have been alerted to possible de-energization expected to begin early Wednesday morning and continue until Thursday afternoon, due to high fire risk.
Inspections, repairs, and restoration to such a wide area could add additional days to the outage.
"That would be terrible, I have a baby so any power being off, a lot of things can go terribly wrong," said Dana Barragon of Santa Rosa, fueling his car on Stony Point Road.
By Wednesday, gas pumps may be inoperable, along with traffic lights and ATMs.
"It's bad all around and we obviously don't want another fire to hit, but that's huge, we can't be without power for that long," said Barragon.
High winds and low humidity mirror the conditions of Oct. 8 and 9 2017, when devastating firestorms ravaged the region.
"This is severe windy weather that we're tracking, dry and gusty fire-potential weather, " said Deanna Contreras, North Bay spokesperson for PG&E.
More than a dozen fires took homes and lives two years ago, and most of them were caused by the clash of trees and power equipment.
"The peak of the extreme weather is from Wednesday morning to Thursday mid-day so if we were to shut off the power it would happen the early hours of Wednesday morning," said Contreras.
The shutdown could stretch for five to seven days in some areas.
"Safety is our top priority, and we don't want to jeopardize anybody with an outage, if it wasn't our last resort," said Contreras.
The possibility has businesses seeking generators, so they can continue operating.
"Our business is up 200 percent," said Liesl Ramsay, CEO at Leete Generators in Santa Rosa.
Ramsay stood before a warehouse full of boxed generators, ordered and paid for by customers who are waiting for installation.
Electricians are swamped with work, and there is red tape involved as well.
"Of course our customers are frustrated, especially looking at this forecast," said Ramsay.
"Here sits their generator because of city permitting issues and air permitting issues, how would you feel?"
Some larger generators, for wineries and municipalities, are loaded for delivery Tuesday, trying to beat the blackout.
The company owners lost their own home in 2017, and wonder if PG&E is being overly-cautious.
"Being a fire survivor, I think they have to be," said Ramsay.
"But by the same token, I'm a little nervous because the fire happened so quickly, it's over with before you even know it."
Public agencies are scrambling as they did two weeks ago, during threatened power shutoffs.
The city of Santa Rosa and county of Sonoma will have their emergency operations centers up and running Tuesday.
The utility will also hold three conference calls with first responders and officials, to brief them as the shutdown comes into clearer focus.
"We can look at this like a winter storm, weather forecasting isn't perfect," said Paul Lowenthal, Assistant Santa Rosa Fire Marshal.
"The closer we get to the actual event, the better the information will be."
What makes this weather event different: the high winds will not only hit upper elevations, but also the flatlands and valleys.
It's a forecast eerily similar to two years ago, making an anxious anniversary even more so.