Powerful winds return to North Bay fire zone; new power outage numbers

KTVU - The powerful winds that fanned the flames last Sunday, and helped ignite the Wine Country wildfires, returned overnight.

The San Francisco Bay Area National Weather Service reported that offshore winds were over the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma Counties.

Firefighters said they were starting to make progress on some of the wildfires, partially due to favorable weather conditions the past few days.

But they feared that if the winds picked up, it would stoke the fires.

Winds at Mt. Diablo gusted at 51 miles per hour, at about 2 a.m. Saturday.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office also ordered mandatory evacuations overnight in a section of Santa Rosa, along with near the city of Sonoma, including the areas of 7th and 8th Streets East, East Napa Street, and Denmark Street.

The Sheriff's Office posted on social media urging residents in the affected area to evacuate immediately. This area is located near Sonoma Garden Park and Sonoma Valley High School.

PG&E reported early Saturday morning, it had restored electricity to most of its customers who lost power during the firestorm.

Since last Sunday, power outages affected 279,000 customers.

But in the past week, 91-percent of the homes and businesses had been restored.

Twenty-four thousand customers, mainly in Napa and Sonoma Counties, were still without electricity, as of Saturday morning.

They included 16,700 in Santa Rosa and 5,600 in Napa.

PG&E told KTVU that the utility had to turn off 36,000 gas services, affecting 42,000 customers.

As of 2 p.m. Friday, PG&E workers had 10,300 relights.