Californians face power blackouts as utility warns 22 counties under threat

Thousands of California customers who experienced power shutoffs last weekend should prepare for even more outages, utilities company Pacific Gas & Electric has warned.

About 30,000 customers across 22 California counties may be affected by a planned electricity shutoff to avoid wildfires. The counties are Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Mendocino
Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba.

The shutoffs may begin as early as this Wednesday and last through Saturday. PG&E said it has notified customers.

Dry and gusty conditions combined with energized power lines may prove too dangerous for the utility to keep the power on. The strongest winds are forecast for the Sierra Nevada, the southern Central Coast and portions of the North and East Bay.

Only last weekend, the utility had shut off power about 12,200 customers across 17 counties to deal with the same conditions of dry, gusty winds.

Just this past Monday, the National Weather Service posted a notice about elevated fire weather conditions Tuesday due to “breezy northerly winds” combined with low humidity. The Service said those conditions may last further Wednesday and Thursday.

The Service warned residents to keep vehicles off dry gas, properly dispose of cigarettes and to avoid using outdoor equipment like lawn mowers.

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