According to a press release from Pacific Gas & Electric Thursday afternoon, Pacific Gas & Electric currently expects that approximately 2,188 Humboldt County customer connections will be de-energized on Saturday October 26th, as a result of wind-driven local fire conditions.
A Fire Weather Watch is in effect for elevations above 2000 feet across interior Mendocino, Lake, southern Trinity, and extreme southeast Humboldt counties for late Saturday night through late Sunday night. Gusty northeast to east winds increasing Saturday night and peaking on Sunday will combine with low relative humidity values to result in locally critical fire weather conditions, particularly over exposed ridgetops. Winds will ease on Monday, but no rainfall is in sight through the weekend into next week.
This is the “Public Safety Power Shutoff” outage map provided by Pacific Gas & Electric for the Saturday, October 26 scheduled outage. The map indicates impacts to virtually all populated areas of Humblodt county.
Pacific Gas & Electric states they are unable to provide specific timing or a total duration for the local shutdown, but the wind conditions are expected late Saturday evening, power may be shut down several hours in advance, and wind conditions may persist through Sunday and into Monday before restoration can begin.
In an environment of ambiguous information, the Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services is advising that all Humboldt County residents prepare for the possibility of an extended outage affecting all Pacific Gas & Electric customers, beginning Saturday evening. We share your frustration and hope that the outage is not as widespread as this map indicates.
