Update: 12:07 a.m., Thursday:
PG&E says it has restored power to 50,000 customers in the Sierra foothills.
High winds in Vacaville, blow over a car cover:
Update 12 a.m., Thursday
More than 40,000 Nevada County PG&E customers are in the dark Wednesday night. In the county seat, Nevada City councilmembers held their regular meeting but had to cut it short, since the generator powering the lights in the council chambers was running out of gas.
Afterward, some two dozen people gathered outside City Hall on Broad Street, which runs through the heart of Nevada City. The thoroughfare is lit by gas lamps, but everything else in the town was dark Wednesday night. The group was filled with people wearing colorful lights.
“We’re going to have a little light parade here and discussion about what’s been going on with PG&E and what looks to be an unnecessary power outage,” Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum told ABC10.
“We’re pretty supportive, I’d have to say, with having a power outage during any catastrophic winds, but we’re not seeing this."
She said the full day without power has taken a “big economic hit for our community and I’m sure for a lot more communities in Northern California.”
Darby Palmer owns a building downtown, in which she houses her day spa business and an Airbnb rental unit. Both were impacted by the power outage.
“I had to cancel clients today. I had massages booked. And I have new Airbnb guests arriving tomorrow and the next day. They’re all here for weddings – two different wedding parties this weekend,” Palmer said, adding the PG&E shutoff “affects everything, it’s a whole domino effect.”
People at the gathering remarked how little wind Nevada City had seen all day.
“Maybe, the most, 5 miles-an-hour winds, and that was toward the late afternoon,” said Eric Struble, who lives in Nevada City with his family. “It is frustrating. I understand what they’re doing for other places and we have to be affected by it.”
“Because they can’t just shut down one spot,” Struble’s 11-year-old son Sawyer Brush chimed in.
“I wish they could,” Struble responded. “I don’t want to sit in five days in a house, trying to figure things to do in the dark.”
Mayor Senum said people in her city – and other communities throughout California – are sick of PG&E monopolizing power and being electric customers’ only choice.
“We’re up in arms about this,” Senum said. “This is not the way to treat consumers and citizens of California.”
Update 11 p.m.
PG&E continues implementing its Public Safety Power Shutoff.
The utility is considering a third phase of outages, which would include portions of Kern County, according to a press release from PG&E. Nearly 4,000 customers would be affected. It was once predicted that 43,000 customers would lose power. But due to changing weather conditions, fewer customers would be impacted.
The second phase of the power shutoffs began Wednesday afternoon. PG&E said about 234,000 customers will be impacted during this phase in the following counties: Alameda, Alpine, Contra Costa, Mariposa, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Tuolumne. Outages are expected to happen in two waves, with the East Bay, South Bay and Santa Cruz counties being impacted later tonight.
“We understand that this power shutoff is difficult for our customers and communities. Please check on your neighbors, friends and family and know that we will work safely, and quickly as possible, to restore power across the region,” said Sumeet Singh, vice president, PG&E Community Wildfire Safety Program.
Power was restored for approximately 50,000 customers in the Sierra Foothills since the shutoff began, PG&E said. The utility may be able to restore power to 60,000 to 80,000 customers in Humboldt County Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
Update 10 p.m.
PG&E has delayed shutting off power to the San Francisco Bay area because expected dangerous, gusty winds haven't yet materialized.
Spokesman Jeff Smith said it's unclear when the Bay Area will be hit because it depends on the weather, which authorities are watching closely.
PG&E cut power to about 500,000 customers in northern and central California counties Wednesday and warned that it planned to expand the outages to about 250,000 other customers later in the day.
But by late Wednesday night, PG&E's second phase of shutoffs had only extended to the Sierra Nevada foothills and the central valley.
PG&E is staging an unprecedented, widespread blackout because of extreme fire danger, including winds that could blow down power lines and spark deadly wildfires.
Update 9:15 p.m.
Nearly half of the city of Vacaville went without power Wednesday as PG&E carried out power shutoffs throughout Northern California.
People scrambled across the city to find power sources, everyday essentials and clean bathrooms.
“The first two stores I went to by my house were both closed.... so I’m here getting what I need," said Mike Seidlitz as he picked up non-perishables. "I hope it just gets us through the next few days and we’ll see how long it takes for them to get back on."
The Walmart on Helen Power Drive was one of the few grocery stores that still had power but early in the afternoon, some were turned away when they ran out of essentials like water and ice.
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“We got a bunch of snacks and goodies... just a bunch of goodies so we can go to the hotel, snack and make the best of it," said Quinn Colvin, a Vacaville resident without power.
Colvin was one of the first to lose power just after midnight Wednesday, but she’s making the best out of the situation and taking the family to a hotel for at least the night.
“It’s frustrating but again, what are you going to do? It doesn’t make sense to be upset and up in arms about it. It’s not going to change the situation," she said.
Update 8:30 p.m.
It’s pitch black in Placerville. All that’s visible on Main Street are flashing red lights from traffic lights.
ABC10 was in Old Town Placerville since earlier Wednesday morning. Most of the shops were closed and, as you can imagine, many shop owners were frustrated. Others got creative and did what they could to keep the business running.
At the PG&E service center at the Placer County Fairgrounds, residents were coming and going all day. Many were there just to charge up their devices. ABC10 spoke to one woman who said she completely understood why PG&E shut off power.
“This is an inconvenience. This is not Hurricane Katrina. We’re not losing lives. We’re not flooding. We are very fortunate we have gas and there are still several places that are open to get food if we need to. It will be OK,” said Cindy Kersey from Cameron Park.
A dentist ABC10 spoke with managed to keep his practice up and running thanks to a generator. And she has a very important message for people in this area.
“If there are people that need to store their medication in the fridge, we can definitely accommodate that. They just have to bring it in. We will keep a log for it so that everything is nice and secure for everybody is dark now,” said Dr. Vera Dooley with Dooley Dentistry.
It was a perfect example of the community helping each other out.
Update 6:40 p.m.
During a press conference Wednesday, PG&E announced that it restored power to about 44,000 customers.
Company Vice President Sumeet Singh said the company identified a way to reroute electricity and restore some service.
He said winds have slowed in some parts of California's Sierra Foothills, and the utility is trying to determine whether it can bring back service to the Humboldt area. Doing so requires performing safety inspections along the route by helicopter and on the ground.
Singh said PG&E is hoping to be able to bring back service to another 60,000 to 80,000 customers as soon as it can.
Still, the company plans to cut power to another 250,000 customers Wednesday night.
Update 5:45 p.m.
Customers in Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Tuolomne and Calaveras counties lost power just after 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to Brandi Merlo, spokesperson for PG&E.
Merlo said the utility may return power to some counties.
"We are starting to pick up customers in areas in the North where we have received an all clear and it’s safe to do so," she said. "We’ve also identified areas where we could safely energize sections of our electrical system that were not in high fire threat zones."
Merlo said the utility reconfigured its system in different areas to minimize the impact on customers.
Original:
Hundreds of thousands of residents in Northern California and the Bay Area are in the dark as the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) conducts a multi-phase Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) event all over the state.
As of 4 p.m., more than 530,000 customers are without power. And that figure is not individual people, but customers. So, the number of people affected is likely much, much higher.
Phase 2 of the shutoffs, according to PG&E, is estimated to impact nearly 300,000 additional customers starting at 8 p.m.
ABC10 crews have fanned out to communities impacted by the shutoffs, speaking to residents and business owners who are dealing with the possibility of prolonged power outages.
Traffic
CHP is warning drivers heading over Donner Pass on Interstate 80 to have plenty of fuel because the PG&E outages have closed many gas stations along the interstate in the area.
A grass fire burning near highways 12 and 113 in Rio Vista is impacting traffic in Solano County. According to CHP Solano, SR-12 and Olsen Road have been closed due to the fire.
Winters
Most of Winters is without power, leaving the downtown are looking like a ghost town.
Businesses along Main Street posted “closed” signs as approximately two-thirds of the city sits in the dark.
Two local schools are without power and another two have power, according to ABC10’s Kurt Rivera. The high school is one of the schools with electricity.
El Dorado Hills
Most of the power is on for people living in the El Dorado Hills area.
The majority of outages in the area are impacting residential neighborhoods north of Highway 50. Many traffic lights are turned off in those areas causing heavy traffic congestion. Those living south of 50 are not experiencing outages.
RELATED:
Watch live: PG&E power shutoffs expected through Thursday
California's biggest utility shut off electricity to more than a million people Wednesday for what could be days on end, in the most sweeping effort in state history to prevent wildfires caused by windblown power lines.
The first phase began just after midnight Wednesday, with approximately 513,000 customers affected. The counties in the first phase include: Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba.
PG&E delayed the second phase due to a change in weather, according to a PG&E spokesperson.
Your questions on PG&E power outages, answered
ABC10 is answering your PG&E Public Power Safety Shutoff related questions such as how long would the power be shut off? The outage would last until Thursday, but PG&E said to be prepared that power would be down for up to seven days.
This is a developing story and more information will be provided when it becomes available.
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WATCH MORE: 5 hacks to get you through a power outage
