Leroy N. Soetoro
2019-10-14 01:42:12 UTC
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pg-e-slammed-cutting-power-millions-
californians-n1064481
SONOMA, Calif. Californians from the governor on down slammed the
state's largest utility Wednesday for rolling blackouts that could plunge
up to 2 million people into darkness as it scrambles to keep its power
lines from sparking wildfires.
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., or PG&E, began shutting off power in phases
early Wednesday to about 500,000 customers in northern and central parts
of the state, including sections of the San Francisco Bay Area. A second
wave, affecting about 250,000 customers, began in the afternoon. And more
outages were reported early Thursday.
The mayor of San Jose early Thursday urged residents in the city of about
1 million to stay safe. "Don't drive if you don't have to at nighttime in
the blacked-out areas," Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a video posted to
social media.
The sheriff in Alameda County said shortly before midnight that power was
being shut off there, including in Oakland.
The National Weather Service said wind gusts of almost 60 mph were
recorded Wednesday night at Mount Diablo, east of Berkeley.
Because customers include businesses in addition to individual homes, PG&E
said the shutdown could affect as many as 2 million Californians in all.
And it said customers wouldn't be reimbursed for lost business, housing
alternatives or spoiled food and medicines.
"I'm outraged, because it didn't need to happen," Gov. Gavin Newsom said
in an appearance Wednesday in San Diego.
Newsom agreed that PG&E likely had no option but to institute the so-
called public safety power shutdown as high winds coupled with low
humidity created ideal conditions for what PG&E called potentially
disastrous wildfires.
But the governor said PG&E never should have gotten to this point.
"They're in bankruptcy because of their terrible management going back
decades," Newsom said. "They created these conditions."
PG&E's energy unit declared the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history
in January as it faced massive liabilities from its role in several highly
destructive fires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres of Northern
California in 2017 and 2018.
More than 80 people were killed last year in one of the blazes, which was
dubbed the Camp Fire. The company could be on the hook for up to $18
billion in financial damages at a scheduled trial over its responsibility
in the Camp Fire and other devastating wildfires going back to 2017.
PG&E said in an update late Wednesday night that it had restored power to
around 50,000 customers in the Sierra foothills since the planned outages
began, and that improving conditions meant that another 60,000 to 80,000
customers in Humboldt County in the far northwestern part of the state
could get power back Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
PG&E had said that work to restore power wouldn't start until the
dangerous weather has passed and all of the utility's lines have been
inspected for safety. And even then, it can go forward only in daylight.
Citing the large number of outages and the potential unknown damage, "we
only know that it could take several days to fully restore power," said
Sumeet Singh, PG&E's vice president for community wildfire safety
programs.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news
That prospect frightens people like Wanda Stricklin, 84, who has lived at
Seven Flags of Sonoma, a mobile home community for senior citizens in
Sonoma, southwest of Sacramento, for 24 years.
Stricklin told NBC News that she has diabetes, which she treats with
insulin that must be kept refrigerated. But the power went out at Seven
Flags overnight, and "they tell me now we may be out five days."
"I have to keep making sure that all my medication for my diabetes is
really going to stay put," Stricklin said. "Otherwise, I have to get new
diabetic medicine."
If she has to throw out her insulin, there's no guarantee that her health
care coverage will provide it at an affordable price. Nor would she likely
be able to turn to PG&E for help.
"Because we're shutting off the power for safety reasons, we do not
reimburse customers," Ari Vanrenen, a spokeswoman for the utility, told
NBC News on Wednesday.
"If a customer would like to submit a claim, we will evaluate on a case-
by-case basis," she said.
Jackie Duncan, 79, who's lived at Seven Flags for 2œ years, said her 50-
year-old daughter has been diabetic since she was 7 years old and takes
four shots of insulin every day.
"The insulin, that's really what my concern is," Duncan said, because ice
to stock coolers has been hard to find.
"And that's another issue, too, for people here in the park who are on
oxygen, also," she said. "That's not good, but they don't seem to care
about that. They do not care about that, really."
Darryl Blanton, 80, a resident since 1989, said he'd be going to bed
afraid he might not wake up. That's because he uses a forced-air apparatus
called a C-PAP to regulate his breathing while he's asleep.
"I've used that since 2003, and I can't sleep without that," Blanton said.
"And it's bad for my health I could have a heart attack because of not
being able to sleep."
Blanton said the machine's backup battery is good for only day, so he's
had to find a friend who has power to recharge every day.
"We're elderly," he said. "I'm 80, and so I'm not a young, spry man
anymore."
Other Californians may have taken more extreme measures.
The California Highway Patrol told NBC News it was investigating what
appeared to be a drive-by shooting of a marked PG&E truck on Tuesday
night.
The truck was on an interstate in Williams, in Colusa County, when its
passenger-side window was shattered, the CHP said, and an investigation
indicated it was struck by a bullet. The driver wasn't injured, it said.
Singh, the PG&E vice president, said the company understood the stressful
impact of its shutdown and was working as fast as it could to restore
power.
"This is not a decision that we take lightly," he said. "This is the
measure that is needed as a last resort."
Singh acknowledged that PG&E could have taken steps sooner to ensure that
its faulty lines wouldn't spark wildfires. But he said that he's "not
looking at the past" and that "we are doing everything we can."
"We are where we are at the moment," he said. "We can all Monday-morning
quarterback later."
Singh and Vanrenen, the PG&E spokeswoman, blamed climate change for some
of the company's problems.
Singh said hardening PGE's infrastructure would be "a multi-year journey."
Vanrenen, meanwhile, said extreme weather was increasing because of
climate change, "and we do think that this is the new normal that we need
to be prepared for."
That's not good enough for Duncan and her neighbors at Seven Flags.
"They could have done something a long time ago about protecting us and
their equipment," Duncan said.
"And it's their problem, not ours," she said. "I feel strong about that."
Sottile and Ward reported from Sonoma; Johnson reported from Los Angeles.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
californians-n1064481
SONOMA, Calif. Californians from the governor on down slammed the
state's largest utility Wednesday for rolling blackouts that could plunge
up to 2 million people into darkness as it scrambles to keep its power
lines from sparking wildfires.
Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., or PG&E, began shutting off power in phases
early Wednesday to about 500,000 customers in northern and central parts
of the state, including sections of the San Francisco Bay Area. A second
wave, affecting about 250,000 customers, began in the afternoon. And more
outages were reported early Thursday.
The mayor of San Jose early Thursday urged residents in the city of about
1 million to stay safe. "Don't drive if you don't have to at nighttime in
the blacked-out areas," Mayor Sam Liccardo said in a video posted to
social media.
The sheriff in Alameda County said shortly before midnight that power was
being shut off there, including in Oakland.
The National Weather Service said wind gusts of almost 60 mph were
recorded Wednesday night at Mount Diablo, east of Berkeley.
Because customers include businesses in addition to individual homes, PG&E
said the shutdown could affect as many as 2 million Californians in all.
And it said customers wouldn't be reimbursed for lost business, housing
alternatives or spoiled food and medicines.
"I'm outraged, because it didn't need to happen," Gov. Gavin Newsom said
in an appearance Wednesday in San Diego.
Newsom agreed that PG&E likely had no option but to institute the so-
called public safety power shutdown as high winds coupled with low
humidity created ideal conditions for what PG&E called potentially
disastrous wildfires.
But the governor said PG&E never should have gotten to this point.
"They're in bankruptcy because of their terrible management going back
decades," Newsom said. "They created these conditions."
PG&E's energy unit declared the largest utility bankruptcy in U.S. history
in January as it faced massive liabilities from its role in several highly
destructive fires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres of Northern
California in 2017 and 2018.
More than 80 people were killed last year in one of the blazes, which was
dubbed the Camp Fire. The company could be on the hook for up to $18
billion in financial damages at a scheduled trial over its responsibility
in the Camp Fire and other devastating wildfires going back to 2017.
PG&E said in an update late Wednesday night that it had restored power to
around 50,000 customers in the Sierra foothills since the planned outages
began, and that improving conditions meant that another 60,000 to 80,000
customers in Humboldt County in the far northwestern part of the state
could get power back Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
PG&E had said that work to restore power wouldn't start until the
dangerous weather has passed and all of the utility's lines have been
inspected for safety. And even then, it can go forward only in daylight.
Citing the large number of outages and the potential unknown damage, "we
only know that it could take several days to fully restore power," said
Sumeet Singh, PG&E's vice president for community wildfire safety
programs.
Download the NBC News app for breaking news
That prospect frightens people like Wanda Stricklin, 84, who has lived at
Seven Flags of Sonoma, a mobile home community for senior citizens in
Sonoma, southwest of Sacramento, for 24 years.
Stricklin told NBC News that she has diabetes, which she treats with
insulin that must be kept refrigerated. But the power went out at Seven
Flags overnight, and "they tell me now we may be out five days."
"I have to keep making sure that all my medication for my diabetes is
really going to stay put," Stricklin said. "Otherwise, I have to get new
diabetic medicine."
If she has to throw out her insulin, there's no guarantee that her health
care coverage will provide it at an affordable price. Nor would she likely
be able to turn to PG&E for help.
"Because we're shutting off the power for safety reasons, we do not
reimburse customers," Ari Vanrenen, a spokeswoman for the utility, told
NBC News on Wednesday.
"If a customer would like to submit a claim, we will evaluate on a case-
by-case basis," she said.
Jackie Duncan, 79, who's lived at Seven Flags for 2œ years, said her 50-
year-old daughter has been diabetic since she was 7 years old and takes
four shots of insulin every day.
"The insulin, that's really what my concern is," Duncan said, because ice
to stock coolers has been hard to find.
"And that's another issue, too, for people here in the park who are on
oxygen, also," she said. "That's not good, but they don't seem to care
about that. They do not care about that, really."
Darryl Blanton, 80, a resident since 1989, said he'd be going to bed
afraid he might not wake up. That's because he uses a forced-air apparatus
called a C-PAP to regulate his breathing while he's asleep.
"I've used that since 2003, and I can't sleep without that," Blanton said.
"And it's bad for my health I could have a heart attack because of not
being able to sleep."
Blanton said the machine's backup battery is good for only day, so he's
had to find a friend who has power to recharge every day.
"We're elderly," he said. "I'm 80, and so I'm not a young, spry man
anymore."
Other Californians may have taken more extreme measures.
The California Highway Patrol told NBC News it was investigating what
appeared to be a drive-by shooting of a marked PG&E truck on Tuesday
night.
The truck was on an interstate in Williams, in Colusa County, when its
passenger-side window was shattered, the CHP said, and an investigation
indicated it was struck by a bullet. The driver wasn't injured, it said.
Singh, the PG&E vice president, said the company understood the stressful
impact of its shutdown and was working as fast as it could to restore
power.
"This is not a decision that we take lightly," he said. "This is the
measure that is needed as a last resort."
Singh acknowledged that PG&E could have taken steps sooner to ensure that
its faulty lines wouldn't spark wildfires. But he said that he's "not
looking at the past" and that "we are doing everything we can."
"We are where we are at the moment," he said. "We can all Monday-morning
quarterback later."
Singh and Vanrenen, the PG&E spokeswoman, blamed climate change for some
of the company's problems.
Singh said hardening PGE's infrastructure would be "a multi-year journey."
Vanrenen, meanwhile, said extreme weather was increasing because of
climate change, "and we do think that this is the new normal that we need
to be prepared for."
That's not good enough for Duncan and her neighbors at Seven Flags.
"They could have done something a long time ago about protecting us and
their equipment," Duncan said.
"And it's their problem, not ours," she said. "I feel strong about that."
Sottile and Ward reported from Sonoma; Johnson reported from Los Angeles.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
The Obama-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)
approved Uranium One in fall 2010. With a little luck, we'll see
compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail before she dies.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.