Wildfires

[Lewis]

Extreme fire danger situation.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. issued an unprecedented notification to potentially shut off power across much of Northern California, as many as 30 California counties including almost all of the Bay Area on Wednesday morning thru Thursday Night to prevent power lines and equipment from sparking wildfires. Winds are expected to be 20mph to 30mph in the mountains with gusts of at least 55pmh, Gusts up to 30mph are expected in valleys.

 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/amp/PG-E-issues-unprecedented-power-shutoff-watch-for-14498454.php

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Lewis

[Lewis]

Western U.S: Firefighters battle 6,000 acre blaze in Colorado.

 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/05/us/decker-fire-colorado/index.html

 

[Tortuga]

PGE is being pretty vague about who will be affected by the power outages. It feels like the announcement is a more of a PR move...

[JennyM]

And they will declare the company bankrupt because of the claims from the camp fire. 

[Jarred]

8 hours ago, JennyM said:

And they will declare the company bankrupt because of the claims from the camp fire. 

In fact they already did earlier this year.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/business/pge-bankruptcy.html

[tekmantwo]

I found out, just before leaving for meeting, Colfax is on the list. Its almost 12:30AM right now, still have power, still not windy...

 

A lot of folks are pretty upset about this. They figure PG&E should maintain their equipment better and should not turn the power off every chance they get.

 

We are gonna be ok, I froze a bunch of water jugs the other day, I put them out in the garage to make room in the freezer, if I need to I can bring the jugs back in the house....WCGW?

[Doug]

Wednesday morning through Thursday night is CRAZY !!!!

[Lewis]

The outages have started so far 500,000 are in the dark, another 300,000 are projected to lose power today for a total of 800,000 people.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/09/us/pge-power-outage-wednesday/index.html

 

You can search to see if your area is affected on this site here.

https://projects.sfchronicle.com/trackers/power-outages/

[Tortuga]

Parts of our city is scheduled to lose power. My MIL is in an area that may lose power but we aren't. The elders started checking on friends last night to ensure everyone was prepared for an outage. Most of our service territories are in areas scheduled to lose power. Today may be a very interesting service day...

[JennyM]

No power in Venezuela too.

[Tortuga]

11 hours ago, Lewis said:

The outages have started so far 500,000 are in the dark, another 300,000 are projected to lose power today for a total of 800,000 people.

800,000 service addresses,  so probably 2 or 3 times that number of people are affected. The local newscast thinks that up to 2 million people are affected. Many in our congregation don't have power. 

[Old]

PG&E errered in the past in trying to keep the power on as long as possible. Reflecting on fines in the settlement of Paradise it looks like they will error on the side of caution from here on until the next big lawsuite.

[tekmantwo]

Power is out here in Colfax,  the wind is dead calm...

[Tortuga]

8 minutes ago, Old said:

PG&E errered in the past in trying to keep the power on as long as possible. Reflecting on fines in the settlement of Paradise it looks like they will error on the side of caution from here on until the next big lawsuite.

They are also trying to catch up on deferred maintenance but don't feel the equipment is safe in high winds. Their overabundance of caution is affecting over 2 million people. 

 

BTW: they are putting up temporary barricades around their main office in San Francisco due to customer "feedback" 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Bro Richard

[Lewis]

From the Latimes.

 

“Quote”

Based on the latest forecasts, the utility says it expects high winds will last through midday Thursday, with peak winds reaching 70 mph through Thursday morning. Gusty winds and low humidity across much of the northern section of the state prompted the National Weather Service on Wednesday to issue an extreme fire weather warning.

Once the fire weather subsides, PG&E will inspect and test the grid both with on-site crews and electronically before restoring service. That could take up to five days, a company official said

“Unquote”

 

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-09/pg-e-cuts-power-across-northern-california-as-winds-bring-critical-fire-danger

 

 

 

[Qapla]

The utilities in California are in a no-win scenario. If they cut the power, people complain and say they are going too far ... if they leave it on and a fire start, people say they should have known better and cut the power.

 

I live in Florida and we get hurricane warnings. Like what recently happened with Dorian. People rushed out and bought all sorts of supplies and thanked the Governor for declaring a "State of Emergency" ... then when Dorian moved away from us, many of them tried to return those supplies and said the authorities were "scarring us for no reason".

[Tortuga]

PGE had announced a power outage in Butte county last year and then didn't shut off the power. The Camp fire that destroyed Paradise may not have happened if they did what they were going to do.

[JennyM]

burn the midnight candle 

[SUNRAY]

@Richard You and the friends there are in my prayers. Being without power for any length of time has huge implications...personally, congregationally, and community-wise. A gas station without a generator, a grocery store, stop lights, inability to buy ice, heating and air conditioning! So many implications! Please be safe..crime is also a concern. Of course, our organization under Jehovah's direction is our guiding light!💓

[Tortuga]

45 minutes ago, SUNRAY said:

Richard You and the friends there are in my prayers.

Thank you. We aren't affected but some of the friends are.

[JennyM]

 

[Tortuga]

That area had the Creek fire two years ago, we drove past it but we were stuck in Santa Clarita for a couple of hours due to the Rye fire. That is a very dry area and prone for fires.

[Friends just call me Ross]

I think Juan Brown/blancolirio does a good job explaining some of the fallout from the  PG&E power outage in this video:

 

 

[Tortuga]

There is a major fire in Geyserville right now that appears to be started by another PG&E power line failure. The wind speed in the area was not enough to trigger their power outage. The Kincade fire has destroyed over 21,000 acres and is only 5% contained. A lot of vineyards are being affected or destroyed by the fire. 

 

Unfortunately there is a high wind event expected this weekend and PG&E will proactively shut off power to over 800,000 service locations,  so it will affect possibly over 2 million people.  It will also unfortunately complicate any efforts to contain the Kincade fire. 

 

California is on fire again...

Edited October 25, 2019 by Bro Richard

[Lee49]

one of my favorites!