PG&E power outage coverage

I don't see the purpose of it I really don't I don't want to sit in five days in a house trying to figure things to do in the dart and it's not fun yeah powers been off since 12:30 last night we've got 60 pounds of ice they created these conditions was unnecessary now it's time for them to do the right thing millions of people in the dark for a second day nobody is happy about it PG&E has cut the power to more than six hundred thirty thousand customers so let's take a look now at the PGE outage map every purple dot is one community that has no power but we're learning 50,000 customers than the Sierra Foothills have gotten power back but many people are nearing 36 hours with no power yeah a lot of us are really feeling the pain of this PG&E is doing this because of some pretty dangerous weather it's a lot of wind up there is no humidity and the combination of those two things can start and then spread a fire really quickly all right so this morning we're asking the question are these public safety powers shutoffs helpful or harmful we want to know what you think about ABC teen.com slash evoke open up our app vote that way you can vote on this live to let us know what you're thinking and right now looks like 60% of you were saying no we'll keep an eye on that throughout the show and as you know we've been looking at Facebook and reading your comments for about 48 hours so we wanted to know what your thoughts were and Rebekah's has an interesting point she says this is not just about living without technology so she lives on a farm she has to make sure her animals are fed she doesn't have a lot of water and I think what am I going to do if there is a fire I'm not even worried about the technology I'm just trying to give by hour by hour so we'll continue to share your comments throughout the day so we can get different perspective of him yeah everybody's got a different story of what happens when they don't have electricity okay we are covering this story from every angle this morning as we have been since the power went out seemingly what 8 24 48 hours ago we lose track at this point Carlos Herrera is in Nevada City thousands of people without power for second day Giacomo Lucca in RAAA firefighters just got a fast-moving fire under control that started about seven hours ago but first Rob with an update on the continuing windy weather listen to it you hear it on my microphone you know every time I'm out here in the Gilmore backyard I'm thinking you know at some point it's gonna start to slow down I will start to move away from this because that is the trend throughout the the course of the day but there's always more gusts there's always another strong wind gust and when you look at this for all elevations it's still ongoing we got to get through today and then things start to get better but for the mountains perhaps not tell early tomorrow morning so let's go ahead and show you some of the current wind speeds and then what you're not seeing there are the wind gusts so what I see is yes the winds are starting to slow down a little bit for the coastal range the west side of the valley I certainly it's been pretty calm almost the whole time for Auburn and Placerville but higher up the winds have really been cranking overnight and I just want to point this out I I know this is a constant thing that is brought up again and again and it makes sense because people without power are frustrated because the weather has not directly affected them however there's some of the strongest wind gusts we've seen since midnight 59 miles an hour they're just off to the east of Lake Orville certainly north and just so you know those are all lined up in the Feather River Canyon where the camp fire broke out related to a transmission line 56 miles an hour so where some of these lines are we have seen some very strong wind gusts it's just not where people actually live and then out in the coastal range you can see somewhat near Calistoga that mountain there's st. Elena it has been very strong 70 miles an hour recently so let's fast-forward what is this really gonna be done well I still think we're gonna have on and on stronger wind gusts until this afternoon by this evening the valley does really start to catch a break from this and we should be done with the red flag warning it looks like on and off though again for the mountain until maybe early tomorrow morning when officially red flag warnings Ryan William enough that a fire did break out it was real quickly that's going to be until 10 o'clock early in the morning there on Friday should end earlier than that for the valley 9:00 p.m. later on tonight now the other thing too is that it's been kind of cold lately this is a great reminder of what's been going on lately that fire weather is not dependent on temperature we maybe think of that because usually some of the big fires break out during hot windy and dry weather has to be windy and dry with dry fuels if you get those three things connecting you're gonna have some fire conditions now and we love to see this at the bottom of your screen I would buy our the general trend for the valley first then the mountains will be wind speeds starting to slow down and slowly but surely will move away from the red flag warning now this started with the weather it's gonna end with the weather but as far as the power outages it's up to them to make the call yeah thank you that's it fluid situation ruff thanks we are following more breaking news ABC 10s Giacomo Lucas has traveled to moraga overnight a fire sparks and forced people to get out quickly jock him out what happened well we we don't know exactly what the cause of that fire was but we do know that better responding the police department all board the door knocking to make sure that 140 family lived in that area that they got the warning and they got out letters they reacted fast and they were learning about 70 percent contained now but Oki giacomo signal obviously breaking up their wind certainly as an issue with some of our technology as well that fire started about two o'clock in the morning in Moraga which is right near st. Mary's College within I would say two hours they were able to get it about 50 percent controlled and we're hearing that they have most of it under control there we will check back with Giacomo as the weather situation warrants in the meantime let's get to Carlos Herrera who is in Nevada City who are thousands of people there remain in the dark and they're not happy Carlos yeah they're not happy at all kind of wondering why power is out here let's take a look here because this is actually a tourist attraction especially on a Thursday morning take a look bras Street is actually one of the most popular cities here popular roads here in Nevada City not many people walking around all businesses on Broad Street are actually closed all but one and let's walk in here in this one because he was having trouble all morning here he decided to open two hours late and let's take a look inside just to see not only are they in the dark but take a look at this cooler here onto my right side unfortunately the ice is melted but that's not all the problem here take a look at the aisles all dark employees were forced to use flashlights to direct their customers as well they're concerned about all the goods inside the refrigerator the inside the freezer was well that's all gonna go to waste the owner we spoke with he says you know what we're gonna probably lose thousands of dollars if the power continues to be off for the rest of the week they're supposed to open at 6:00 in the morning but yesterday as power was out so if we open at 8:00 in the morning so two hours late and we closed by 10:00 so yesterday we close by 5:50 so huge loss because people can't use debit cards no ATM and only thing they have to pay to cash he had a a grocery delivery earlier this morning he had to send that back he says that's money lost as well he says hopefully the the power returns soon hopefully before Saturday because that's when people start coming in here in Nevada City just to tell you about how much tourism means to Nevada City and Nevada County take a look at these numbers provided by the state at least three hundred and sixty million dollars just in visitor spending to the state of California 114 million dollars in food service and more than 3500 jobs were generated just last year to accommodate tourism in Nevada County if the power continues to be shut off here you can just imagine the frustration from people who live here here so Carlos the the store manager that you've been talking to all morning mr. Ottley he indicated what that he was still selling some product in that store but it's just a cash-only kind of thing and in dry goods he had dry goods no debit cards no credit cards the problem here though walls is that people are coming in here and they're standing in front of the door and saying well as it closed is it open and they just simply turn away so that's losing money as well and then they walk in and they don't know where to find stuff because it's really dark in here so again they said they're making some money but there are employees here that they have to pay so that's not generate enough money to pay them so of course you're losing that right he also said what he takes in about five or six thousand a day and he was a like 300 for the morning can you imagine that yeah they open two hours early today they are planning to close by noon if the power doesn't come back so it's a lot of money going to waste yeah probably a lot of businesses in the same boat throughout Northern California right now Carlos thank you found a good location to get what did the regular folk are dealing with today all right Rob we're all dealing with the wind and everybody's saying okay we're still got it going when's it dying down yeah it's gonna be later on tonight and you know just for that for that store that you know your income is going to go up and down but the bills still have to be paid there's always money going out so what we have is another windy day the temperatures are going to be in the 70s it's gonna be the bay area the valley it doesn't matter where you are the wind will be with us but first starting tonight a couple hours past sunset we will start to see the wind relax a little bit humidity come up red flag warning should be over in the valley first then eventually overnight at some point for the Sierra maybe as late as 10:00 a.m. tomorrow all right thank you for that Rob okay so a lot of kids are having the day off today since their schools don't have power but there are some new schools joining the list and the power's out for millions but that caused cell towers to go down as well our verify team verifies get up-to-the-minute information during the largest plan power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now okay my friends it is 913 and welcome back to morning blend millions of people in Northern California without power right now as you know so here's what you need to know before you go take a look live look at PG&E zout ajiz right now 600,000 customers are without power one customer is basically one home one business could be three or four people living in that home so we're looking at millions of people the purple dots show planned shutoff which are now current some of these people have been without power for much more than a day and even more schools are not open today because they have no power the whole Grass Valley School District has canceled classes and after-school program no classes today at Folsom Lake Community College's Placerville campus esparto Unified School District also no school and overnight UC Berkeley said they've canceled classes for the second straight day we're constantly updating the list of closings at our website ABC 10 dot-com okay Rob I mean continued questions for you obviously the conditions still very very windy red flag warnings still very much in effect yeah absolutely so I we're gonna focus on the weather and then I'm gonna address which is still the number one question about they where the strongest winds are and why it's affecting so many people not in those areas so as far as for a power outages so let's take you through the red flag warning area it is large it is almost all of northern California that's why this wind event has had so much hype because it doesn't really matter where you live you are in a zone in the weather where it's very dry and it's very windy and if s if a fire starts it grows very quickly in these kinds of conditions so again it's gonna be at times it's not a consistent thing but certainly at any point between now and maybe 9:00 p.m. in the valley spots if a fire starts okay it could grow very quickly and then for the Sierra it's all the way overnight until tomorrow that's a big change because just yesterday we're talking about 5:00 p.m. today that would be great but it looks like tomorrow we're gonna be looking at a change and then we could see that the red flag red flag wanting to expire just talked to some people in Southern California living in Ventura County these strong Santa Ana winds are kicking up the same kind of thing dry offshore wind a huge fire risk and just so you know millions of people are going to be in this red flag warning area also their respective power companies San Diego Gas and Electric in Southern California Edison they may cut power to their customers as well due to a fire risk so it's it's how power moves from what where it's generated around the state that is a pressure point and a point of concern for sparking wildfires in fact the the whole liability issue of is a power company liable for any damages from a fault on their line that was started by San Diego Gas and Electric from the lawsuit there so let's go ahead and talk about the current wind situation you can see it's kind of patchy we have still not seen very strong winds in Auburn or Placerville or Jackson I mean a good chunk of the Lower Sierra it has not been windy but just above it has been and I think that this this is a really important point to bring up now I'm gonna keep bringing it up because it's disconnect that makes sense but it needs to be explained some of the strongest wind gusts have been in the higher terrain very close to these transmission lines so you know there's only so much data you can get out of this than where there's only so many weather sensors but it's close enough for cause of concern with when you have 50 mile an hour wind gusts or 60 or 70 for near big power lines it could cause a problem and that's where we're seeing the strongest winds and you know how the power gets to your house is through the grid it's one way of thinking about this I think that's really useful is it's kind of like your internet connection at your house you know if it's not working at your house you're not gonna say well my computers totally fine you understand that somewhere down the line something happened a bank of servers went down and that's why it's being interrupted it's the same way with these transmission lines if there's an interruption at any point along these red lines weather-wise where the weather is extreme they may cut power to that line which ultimately if you're down stream of that that may affect you the most classic example is this the campfire it was very windy where the campfire broke out it was not when at all in the beginning where paradises and we know what happened so if it's not windy in your neighborhood just a canyon over or far upstream or close to one of those transmission lines it could be a completely different world affecting you it's an abstract thing but hopefully you can connect the dots and make sense it's frustrating but hopefully that makes sense we've got 70s for the highest later on today by Friday everybody should be done with this red flag warning business and then we're gonna move on to a much better weather weekend the issue then though is now that the weather is helping out they're gonna check those lines and PG&E is gonna make the call along with those other power companies about when they feel comfortable turning the electricity back on it could be a while after that Kirsten I think they're for keeping us updated on 9:18 right now police in Auburn are doing extra patrols right in the areas where the power's out they say they're seeing this though more people driving erratic don't do that they say they want people to know just because the power's out does not mean it's the time to start driving dangerously now while you are on the roads this morning and all day keep in mind that traffic lights are dark in a lot of neighborhoods police in Santa Rosa are telling us that they have responded to several accidents at intersections where power is out they want you to slow down and treat all intersections without power as a four-way stop sign that means that everyone gets a chance to go one in a row now even if your neighborhood does have power all this one can bring down trees and bring down those power lines so look out when you hit the road alright so nothing is easy about living without power but some people are finding ways to cope hey Kevin ro shows us how people in Placerville are living life all in the dark you guys I'm gonna get Wednesday night in the darkness even with the lights off some in Placerville are finding their wait to enjoy their nights yeah we keep it lit even when it's not as they look for spark of normalcy well Wednesday nights are always karaoke [Applause] and the fact that they still did it on a blackout is pretty extraordinary yeah and you know we wanted to be upset and mad about it but we decided to embrace it we might have to do a blackout Wednesday once a month owner al Griffin knew people needed a place to come together this world people like Neil frozen this is my place man this is my home across the street [Music] Binet's italian restaurant also kept the lights on so we went to plan B which is almost like survival mode bringing a different atmosphere but people still looking for normal a couple of days without power I can deal with that so whether you prefer the quiet or karaoke everyone is looking for the light inside the darkness we created a family here thank heaven now ABC 10 well Hank that was an awesome story anytime we can get Volare in a story in Placerville we're winning the power is out for millions right now which means none of the usual luxuries of life are working but a lot of our viewers want to know how about the cellphone the verify team is on it next right here on morning blend get up-to-the-minute information during the largest plan power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now without power most of their usual creature comforts are out of commission what about your cell phone will it continue to have service after the lights go out you asked Jason Puckett verifies there are multiple comments online right now that look like this quote your cell phone won't work if the power goes out at the cell towers and it will that claim sounds like common sense right the cell towers lose power they don't function but that's not exactly true in recent years with fires across the state the California Public Utilities Commission urged cell providers to put in backup power in high-risk locations and some of them have already done that when we reached out of horizon rep said many of their towers have backup generators that they will be refilling to keep service during the outages t-mobile also said they have generators and batteries to keep services online as well as temporary generators they can move around AT&T said they're working to deploy generators and equipment to keep customers connected and also opening unlimited talk text and data to users in the community we haven't heard back from Sprint yet bottom line don't just assume you won't have service the idea that all cell towers will shut down without power is actually false the major providers have generators and backup plans to keep service and that's an important distinction without power and without service people may be tempted to turn their phones off we'll put them in an airplane mode to conserve battery now that's still a good idea if you can't charge your phone but also check periodically to see if you do have service and make sure there aren't any alerts or warnings for your area if you're seeing any other claims out there send us an email and we'll check them out with your verify i'm jason puckett okay I just want to take you through the anatomy of a close call the most critical period I was worried about a fire breaking out was in the middle of the night tonight and early tomorrow morning that's when the winds were going to be the strongest the humidity the lowest in many areas and it's dark and it's very difficult to conduct any sort of evacuation or or throw a lot of resources at a fire when it's in the middle of the night and also people not as responsive to collecting new information or to be able to respond but that's exactly what happened this is in an area called moraga it's a community it's beautiful out there by the way this is south of orinda prime spot and there are people that live there and the way that this broke out was a huge concern because it's what we call the urban wildland interface urban wildland interface when it's right close together now there's a reason why people want to live next to open space because it's beautiful it's nice to be near that however if a fire starts in that area all of a sudden it's got plenty of fuel and it takes it very close to where people live and structures and lives are even threatened there is an advantage because of the access maybe even fire hydrants some firefighters may actually be able to use engines and access and make use of some of those tools so it can be helpful but in a big fire weather event like this it just makes it very tricky because one other thing that can't happen is this you can't use aircraft fixed-wing aircraft most likely in the middle of the night some helicopters are cleared and to be able to be used in the middle of the night but most are not so that's one thing that is very useful on big fire weather days it can't be used so it's started and we were concerned this happened to 2:00 in the morning we were all here and then we saw the winds in the area up to 30 miles an hour and then it's not where the fire is it's where it's going if it was able to work its way through that community or at least part of that then it's got tons of terrain to burn and then on the other side of that is the East Bay so they pinched it off they're able to get after it but it's a close call early this morning it will be right back information during the largest plan power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now this is breaking news on morning blend the way to treat consumers and citizens of California these events historically are the events that caused the most destructive wildfires in California history okay so more than a million people are without power after PG&E cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes throughout Northern California they're doing it because it's hot dry and we are seeing the strongest winds that we've seen in a very long time alright so we want you to look at PG&E outage map you see a lot of times a lot of different colors we're presenting a lot of different things right now so we want to do is zoom in on some of those and let you know that all of these dots represent areas where Power has been shut off for a lot of people but we have some good news PG&E has restored power to 50 thousand people in the Sierra Foothills thanks Vic to restore power to another sixty to eighty thousand later this morning we're gonna keep an eye on that and let you know when and how it gets turned back on for those people I know that they are waiting for that to happen now the point of all this is prevent wildfires so this morning we're asking you do you think the public safety power shut offs are helpful or do you think they're hurting everyone vote now ABC 10.com slash bolt right now 58% of you are saying no they are not helpful and you're a little upset about it a lot of people upset right how do we know Rob I mean we've talked about this how do you know if the shut offs are working or not if there is no fire and or there are fires but may be caused by PG&E right I mean how at the end of this do you do - how do you define success yeah after this because if there's no fires then it worked or maybe they didn't need to do it in the first place because there was no fires I will just say this we're focused on the power situation because that is happening that's the reality but there are literally dozens of ways that fires start and I just want to point out the one that broke out overnight again the Merrill fire we don't have a cause on this yet but we know one thing this area was covered by a planned power outage okay so who knows and they will investigate this but as it broke out it was in a bad spot it was during some very gusty winds people were in their homes they had to be evacuated door-to-door in some cases but luckily they got enough crews in there to pitch this thing off and it's not a situation of course we sent a crew there earlier this morning problems with the cell phone service so that's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to check in continually live sure but certainly a scary moment because it's those you never know where it's gonna be you never know if it's gonna be there you can mean your Santa Rosa or if it's gonna be near plaster but we don't know but that's why these are blanketed across broad regions because the weather is roughly the same in everywhere dry windy conditions especially where those power lines are okay Rob thank you for all that we will check back with you before your next hit as we like to say in the business okay our team coverage continues this morning one area where people are being hit really hard by the power shut offs is in Nevada City a lot of people they are not thrilled about losing power nor would we expect them I haven't seen a person saying yeah this is something I'm excited about you know ABC tens Carlos Senna is live in Nevada City Carlos how are people dealing with the outages we know they're upset understandably so but businesses they're losing a lot of money too yeah especially here since it's a top destination for tourists especially on the weekends on a Thursday morning people here tell me they see a lot of tourists walking down these streets here are especially Broad Street which is the main thoroughfare here in the heart of the city not today though and all businesses in this area are closed all but one we're talking about shops restaurants new york hotel right across the street that gets a lot of tourists on a Thursday morning not happening today this is the only business here that's open it's a grocery store right in the corner of Broad Street in front of the New York hotel this step inside we've been visiting here all morning never really impacted anything economically here the lights are out freezers aren't working ice has melted in a lot of coolers just like this one we've seen employees directing their customers aisle to aisle with flashlights because customers can't really see they're also concerned about products that are in the refrigerator and in the freezer they think that's gonna go to waste the owner here tells me that they usually make about $10,000 a day yesterday only a couple of hundred bucks because they had it open early and closed early here's what he had to say like people from different area that comes over here to visit so they buy a lot of stuff like beer food dairy food so all the things we kept in the fridge they went bad so there's a huge loss and not just to other stores but all the stores we have over here restaurants are closed he's also concerned about produce going to waste he said a lot of people stopped by here from the hotel to pick up some snacks that's gonna go to waste as well a delivery of vegetables was made earlier this morning that was sent back he says that money also going to waste he's expecting to lose thousands and thousands of dollars but he's also concerned about the other businesses here in Nevada City as I mentioned at op Dustin tourist destination here just to give you an idea of how much tourism means in Nevada County here's what it generated for the state 360 million dollars in visitor spending over 114 million in food service and more than 3,500 jobs generated to accommodate tourism in the state of California a really a big deal we talked about how people aren't happy about this they're not thrilled about it I say those words don't really make just as to how business owners are feeling here okay when I'm looking at that refrigerator full of food it should be refrigerated now I do notice that you're wearing your jacket Carlos is it cold enough that maybe those items just have a chance if things come back on today or is it probably all lost he says there was some chance but he says he's practically given up at this point he's not gonna he's not gonna account on that I am wearing my jacket it is cooler outside speaking about the weather wind has picked up a little bit here but a lot of people I spoke with this morning say yeah they're not as strong as they expected it to be they hope power comes back tomorrow yeah you know what I hope some local food bank sees this and the owner is willing instead of throwing the stuff out maybe a food bank and rush over there they can take the food the owner can write it off I mean there's got to be some way instead of just letting it sit there let's put that food in somebody's hands before it gets over the edge Carlos thank you appreciate that let's check in with Rob Rob any hope for the people in Nevada City Grass Valley area that this is gonna solve get solved soon well you know that that was really a heartbreaking I fly shot there and while you have a good point I mean what positive can come out of this so start thinking in that direction just to get you through it because I can tell you two things weather-wise things are gonna get better later on today but also we don't know when the powers coming back on for all these communities because the weather is not going to make that call they're gonna inspect the lines after the weather stops and it's just not stopped yet for the most part we're seeing breezy conditions gusty in places but things have drastically gotten better for the west side of the valley and the coastal range but the winds are still really strong in the High Sierra not an Auburn not in plasma not in Grass Valley or Nevada City but certainly in areas just up in higher elevation from that place I want to point out a couple things here you can see that what we're going to be dealing with strong wind gust from overnight that's really what dictated the concern for power outages we we saw some really strong gusts overnight 50 55 miles an hour up to almost 60 miles an hour this was well within the forecast this was predicted you can see 73 there for some of the higher elevations North Dakota and it's that combination of dry air and strong winds where a fire can start and grow quickly now maybe the wind didn't happen in your neighborhood but remember if a fire started away from your neighborhood and the winds carried it to your neighborhood then you are in the line of fire and it is a risk to you even if the winds never really picked up in your town as far as what we can see later on tonight the valley gets better as far as the Sierra it does get better as well but we may be looking at an extended period of red flag warning conditions in the mountains until tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. so it this is going to be with us for a while but we will be looking at better conditions in the days ahead and certainly the weekend will be a big weekend where maybe the power comes back on and life gets back to normal if it can back to you one five four three two one no I mean we're literally on the other side of the church I don't know where it what happened Mic Check 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 Mic Check okay same information during the largest plan power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now 941 right now thank you for staying with us we are taking a live look and PG&E Public Safety power shutoff map you see it there on your screen a lot of different colored dots what this means is that people are sitting without power has a wildfire prevention method so far PG&E has restored power to 50,000 people they're expecting to get it back on to another 60 to 80 thousand this morning we'll keep you updated when that happens but if you want to link to this map we'll text it to you all you gotta do is text the word shutoff to 911 six three two one three three one zero now we got something else you need to keep in mind PG news web site has been in and out of service for the last few days because so many people are trying to use it that's why the utility created a new website hoping it'll work better for us all you can look up your address to get more information the URL is pretty long so we put that link on ABC 10.com slash links for you so you can have access to it alright so we all know that this is all related to the weather it's windy it's dry Rob help us not with what's gonna happen next okay well we're still gonna be looking at some winds gusty at times I don't think it's going to be as bad as what we saw early this morning but certainly there's a concern remember I it doesn't have to be the worst ever for something to start and to keep going I let me give you an example this is just showing up as red on a map right what does this really mean well yesterday we had portions of this in the coastal range and certainly the portions of the west side of the valley here where it's it was not only a red flag warning conditions but it's what they call extreme it was single-digit humidity and gusts upwards of 55 60 miles an hour and that did in fact happen that's what was forecasted that did in fact happen we had a really close call near the Bay Area for a fire breaking out but they were able to get it now what we have next is pretty strong winds through much of the day they're gonna be coming in and out and at some moments it'll be clear skies and there's not much wind and then an hour later it may pick up so it's just gonna be in the range of a red flag warning for dry and windy weather through the rest of today 9:00 p.m. for the valley 11 o'clock tomorrow morning for the Sierra and I need to mention this because this is a California a fire weather event because what's moving in now that extreme that I talked about that's move now down to Southern California where they're looking at wind gusts of 70 miles an hour or stronger and we know what happens with red flag warnings in Southern California they are also going to experience planned power outages as well San Diego Gas and Electric is saying hey we may cut power to 30,000 people so there is more to this story as it spreads down to the southern portion of the state as far as the wind we're gonna see some of the stronger wind later on in the day for maybe the higher elevations of this year and this is a really important point in all this I've been making so the last two days I'll make one more time in it for so many places where the power is shut off in Placerville and in Grass Valley and in Auburn and in Jackson and a whole whole host of the winds have not been that strong but upstream in some of these narrow canyons and passes and ridge tops they've been very strong 50 60 miles an hour up to 74 just north of Calistoga and that just so happens to be where the power lines are the big transmission lines you know I'm talking about the big towers with all the electricity running through it the the start of the campfire was related to one of those so it's not where you live it's anywhere along these lines and you can see the grid is vast and it happens to move through very rough terrain so if there's a problem anywhere along these red lines where power may be is flowing through if it originates from a hydro dam in some cases it's made out of state in Utah in Oregon there's power that comes into Southern California from a nuclear power plant in Arizona of all places so if there's a problem along the line they're gonna look at that and they're gonna make the determination because if something happens they may be liable right here's a perfect example of it's not windy at my house and what the heck is going on the morning of the campfire I was working it was not windy in paradise we did have red flag conditions but what was going on was in the Feather River Canyon very strong winds upwards of 70 miles an hour estimated and a fire did break out related to a power line and then you know what happens next so if it's not windy at your house there may be a reason upstream that things are changing that may be affecting you as far as the fire whether it gets better later on today 70s through the weekend and then one more thing I want to mention rain we need rain to move away from the fire season and we've got our next chance next week all right we're talking about a lot of a lot of stuff Rob between now the wind rain and all that what happening well let's go to Giacomo Lucca he is live in moraga Giacomo I know you were running out of here about 2:00 this morning chasing this fire what's the status well fortunately wall everything is under control fire fighters were able to get a very quick grasp on the fire that broke out after about 1:00 this morning up here in Moraga it unfortunately evacuated a hundred and forty families and but I am pleased to say right now that all those families have been allowed to return back to their homes no one was injured nobody was hurt but it was certainly a rude wake-up call as folks were sleeping in the middle of the night and this fire broke out we don't know the cause right now but what we do know is that as firefighters were coming out police officers were also in the area because the power was shut off they had to go knocking door-to-door because they didn't have any other way to contact folks and we talked to some people that were living in the area that face those evacuations about these public safety power shut offs this was the prudent thing to do given the weather conditions hopefully in the future the utility will be better prepared so we won't have to have these shut offs but all things considered can put up with the inconvenience if it saved a wildfire from starting anywhere in the northern state now there have been several public safety power shut offs just this year this is by far the largest we've ever seen and I've been speaking to folks for the past several weeks about these shut offs and really folks are taking these many different ways some people say this is a great idea while others are saying you know they think that that the power should be shut off but perhaps not in certain areas of course folks here just glad to be back in their homes today Amazon fire broke out again no word on the cause yet but we're hoping to get some answers on that soon in fact you all alright thank you so much for that look Giacomo giving us a little perspective on what people are going through this morning yeah indeed okay while you were on the roads this morning keep in mind traffic lights dark in many neighborhoods police in Santa Rosa told us they responded to several accidents at intersections where there was no power they say slowdown tree call intersections without power as a four-way stop that advice works everywhere even if you neighborhood does that power all this wind can bring down trees and damaged power lines those could come down as well so be on the lookout for almost anything when you're on the road especially during these high wind scenarios governor Newsom is reacting to those PG&E power shut offs and he's not happy to say the least that created these conditions was unnecessary we're doing everything in our power my gosh doing everything our power to help them help themselves now it's time for them to do the right thing and get out of bankruptcy and get this system to the 21st century he did go on to acknowledge that those shut offs are necessary by PG&E to keep people safe with strong winds posing a wildfire risk in California politicians are getting an earful about the shut offs from the voters and some are trying to direct that anger at PG&E Brandon riddhima now investigating all things politics and PG&E for our series fire power money he uncovered PG&E spends millions to influence our politics listen to this he says many of the politicians calling the company out are also getting its cash take a look PG&E spends a bundle of money to influence our politics donated more than four million dollars just to state-level campaigns in California last election more than 80% of the state legislature took some PG&E money just to give you an idea how widespread this is that's come to a halt since our reporting raised questions about it and got the attention of the federal judge who oversees PGA's probation the company itself is a convicted federal felon still serving time on probation and right now we're dealing with power outages in California because PG&E can't be trusted to keep its power grid safe during high wind so it does deserve to have people angry at it and the governor obliged people should be outraged they should be infuriated Governor Gavin Newsom was quoted saying this week it's not how things should work in the industry none of us are happy about this and yet PG&E donated more than two hundred eight thousand dollars to help elect Newsom last year as part of our reporting we did ask him this summer if he stands by taking the money and whether he'd give it back the governor refused to answer both questions but this isn't just a Democrat thing this is Doug llamosa Republican congressman it seems as if California which fancies itself as one of the top world economies is becoming a third world country he said expecting the power to stay on when the wind blows isn't that giant of a leap for mankind and yet the company that can't seem to get things right gave ylim alpha $13,000 in donations from its PACs since the last election cycle and here's the rub l'm alpha represents paradise in Congress but he took 5,000 of those dollars from PG&E z' pact after last year's camp fire killed 85 people there and it wasn't just him Jim Nielsen represents paradise in the state Senate here in Sacramento he's got a headline on his official site blasting PG&E shut off as unacceptable what he can and did accept was a 64 hundred dollar donation from PG&E towards his campaign last year we asked him if he'd give it back his office never responded neither did the state's two major political parties each of which gladly accepted more than a half million dollars from PG&E last election cycle both of which have elected officials acting shocked right now that PG&E is grid is in such a mess we can trust it not to burn us down the point is for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about PG&E from the people in power PG&E makes a point of protecting its monopoly by pumping money into our politics when the federal judge asked PG&E why the political spending was more important than fixing its power grid the company said it wasn't but it said it spends that money to make sure its interests are quote adequately represented in the halls of power on this day when millions of us in California may literally be powerless we thought you ought to know all right thanks for digging Brandon will the massive PG&E power outages have an effect on smug customers you've been asking and we're answering next I also saw some of the Bay Area lets tweeting out video yesterday of them setting up barricades at the headquarters at Beale Street yeah which is where everyone should direct their anger you're gonna yell at PG&E that's the place those are the people who cut the maintenance budgets for the last oh I don't know four or five decades okay yes you information during the largest planned power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now and before we go we have a question many of you have been asking and that question is going to be answered by Brandon rhythm a okay so I hope resent the question a lot of you were asking this why not smudge why not smudge yeah well it turns out after a decades-long fight with PG&E way back that started in the 1920s the voters of sacramento got their wish and we got our own power company and it is not necessarily beholden to power generation that PG&E brings to people around the state now that's not to say that it couldn't affect doesn't okay but you got to bear in mind pee genies got 16 million customers we're talking about roughly two and a half million losing power right now so if all of PG&E shut down it might be a different conversation because there is a big backbone to the power grid but the reality is right now if you're in Sacramento things are pretty good I used my electric coffee maker this morning flipped on my lights got in my electric car just to show you this video it's actually still picture that we got from Tracey Humphrey last night if we've got that this is the view from Auburn last night looking at Sacramento and yeah we look like kind of the the bastion of civilization right now here you know for all the folks we may have taken over the years about councils wayna we're looking pretty good in Sacramento right now yeah and and frankly I'm curious to see if this event this week gives any more juice no pun intended to the efforts to municipal eyes around the state because we've seen more people yeah looking at hey do we really want to be part of this you know massive monopoly the PG&E has a spot those very aggressively on the past but this this is almost like a giant commercial for the other side especially when you look at situations like this and when you think about the fact that they had to go to federal court and they've been convicted and all of this stuff yeah a lot of people want to separate themselves from PG&E and a lot of people not happy with them right now yeah I mean there's not much to be happy we have we have smart here in the East Bay near San Francisco it's East Bay mud so there are certain pockets of the state who have done what you said yeah just do your own thing yeah Roseville is come come absolutely thanks for watching more news coming up in a minute [Music] you Mic Check but if we don't go from 10 all the way this will flirty when I saw 30 oh hey it's Tracy one two three four five oh hi Justine Carlos here hey so the owner of the beauty salon is reaching a customer's hair and she says she needs ten minutes Mic Check 1 2 3 4 5 thank you thanks for joining us I'm Brittany Begley we are live with our continued coverage around the clock we want to make sure you're prepared thank you so much for watching us right now on Facebook and I'm Kirsten Holmes we've been talking about the PG&E power shut off that has left hundreds of thousands of people in California without power a lot of people little bit about it okay so let's look at this outage map the people you see represented on this colorful map here and it's not so happy right now now I do have some good news to pass along to you right now PG&E has restored power to 50,000 people in the Sierra Foothills now they said they were going to restore power to another sixty to eighty thousand by this morning we are still waiting on confirmation that that has happened or when it will some won't keep you posted it is true I have no power so I am waiting for that now we have a list of all the communities impacted right there in the bottom of your screen we can also text you PG and E's Matt right to you just text the word power to nine one six three to 133 ten again that number is nine one six three to 133 ten and we will send you a link and we're also gonna leave that number on the bottom of your screen so that you feel prepared whenever you need it we want to make sure that everyone is prepared and you know what power being showed up and some of the dangerous fire weather you know it is windy right no humidity so it's just a recipe for a big problem as I've been telling you guys I don't have power but Tracy I know you're in the same boat you don't have power how you holding up you know what I'm kind of over it you know first couple days you got a flashlight kind of moving around a little bit I can't find anything I'm really concerned about what's gonna go bad in my refrigerator I feel couple having to do the sniff test for everything that's left in the freezer I'm just crossing my fingers that the power comes back on tomorrow I do know though that the whole goal I know is to alleviate the concern for a wildfire development but it is a little bit of an inconvenience so here is a look outside right now you can see that camera just kind of shaking ever so slightly we do have the opportunity for some gusty winds in the forecast again for today and that's why that red flag warning is indeed still in effect currently outside is 63 in Sacramento 61 in Stockton 59 in Modesto 62 in Marysville and 39 in Tahoe if I had to find one positive caveat at least the overnight lows were in the 40s in the foothills so we did not have a power but you opened up the window and X was quite quite pleasant at least for the overnight here's a look at some of the current winds that we're watching North to Northwest around 13 and Stockton 18 in Sacramento 20 in Marysville but you know what that really doesn't tell the story where are you looking at the contours in the background where you see the orange and the red and the yellow that is where you have the likelihood for even gusty or winds to be coming in and you can see that driving in on parts of the northern coastal range here that red they're showing about 35 to 40 mile-per-hour winds expected and then once you move in near the foothills pushing into the Sierra you see a brighter red and that means more intense winds are expected that's going to be in our forecast throughout the day today and that's also why the red flag warning is still in our forecast as well here's a look at some of those peak wind gusts we've passed this midnight 28 in santa rosa 37 in fairfield 30 in sacramento 37 in Marysville 22 and Orville 26 down in Modesto the opportunity to again for the gusty winds in the forecast throughout the day that is why we also have a wind advisory in effect so you can see the counties and the areas that were mostly concerned about North East Bay Hills also through the Sacramento Valley as well as for parts of those eastern foothills what can you expect north to easterly winds coming and gusting up to 40 miles per hour that wind advisory is in effect until 6 o'clock this evening of course in tandem with that we also still have the red flag warning and that is again for those same areas that I just showed you in addition to many parts of the Bay Area high fire danger still in the forecast with outdoor burning not recommended during this time frame more than 80 to 85% of wildfires are caused by human era so of course we have to do our part there that opportunity for that red flag warning and the high fire danger has been extended it was 5 o'clock in the evening originally now the National Weather Service has extended it till 9 o'clock tonight for the Sierra it will be extended until early tomorrow morning so a couple of other things that we definitely need to make sure that we're well abreast of I know we're talking a lot about the power lines but you know wildfires can also start by several other methods mowing and weeding we always ask that you do that before 10 o'clock in the morning never use your lawn mowers in dry grass and you know you feel like you don't have to say this but I'm gonna say it anyway if you're pulling over on the side of the road don't do it where it's really dry because you know the exhaust in the underbelly your car is extremely hot we have really dry vegetation and it doesn't take much for things to kind of spark and just get out of control the opportunity game for that high fire danger in the forecast till tonight here's a look at some of the afternoon highs we'll have today 75 in Placerville will see the opportunity again for those temperatures upper 70s in Jackson mid 60s in Arnold 67 in Twain Harte 75 degrees in Auburn here's a look at what you can expect for Tahoe for the next five days you can see 52 for Thursday 60 for Friday lower 60s coming in Saturday Sunday and Monday and then here we are closer to the Bay Area with 70 in San Francisco 72 in Oakland 81 in San Jose 76 down in Santa Cruz and then once you hit the valley floor there mid to upper 70s expected for afternoon highs which is just a skosh below average for this time of the year 76 in Sacramento 76 for Galt in 75 degrees in Roseville just to name a few 10 day forecast temperatures topping off near 80 for Friday and Saturday and then heading through the weekend still looking at those 70s taking over much of next week that's a look at your weather for your traffic this morning is Britney all right one area we've been watching throughout the day really has been the Auburn area especially with gas so we checked in again with GasBuddy to find out where the problem spots and how are we going to solve it for you so happening now Forest Hill as you approach 80 a lot of gas stations do not have gas this morning so what I want you to do is travel a couple of miles down and you're going to find gas stations options on High Street near 80 so keep that in mind of course that is something we will update you on throughout the day limited gas also Sunset Boulevard at Park Drive in Roseville thankfully you have a lot of different options for you Sanford Ranch Road a couple of different gas stations will be able to help you if you are headed out you can also see take a look at this in Sacramento we have a gas station that has an issue as well limited gas a couple of them actually El Camino near business 80 so as you head out think about taking Marconi Avenue and of course again as I've been telling you all day we will update you on TV and online as you're driving keep in mind some traffic lights will be out why because we don't have power so earlier this morning we've been telling you that throughout the day to make sure you're prepared now police in Santa Rosa responded to multiple accidents at intersection without power the now asking everyone to slow down and treat it as a 4-way stop now even if your neighborhood does have power these high winds can bring down trees they could damage power lines and that means big problems for us so remember to take it nice and slow so it run into a big problem this morning Kirsten yeah no a lot of people are you've got to be careful out there on the roadways Thank You Brittany okay so when Nevada City nearly 7400 customers are still in the dark Golisano de is live there right now Carlos you have been out to a bunch of places this week tell us what are you seeing right now the Sun is up people are out and talking right now right yeah they are but not as they usually are a ghost town in Nevada City especially on a broad street which the heart of the city all the businesses they're talking about shops restaurants hotels closed as well all but one grocery store was open that's the bad news for business owners but not because that those businesses on Broad Street were closed doesn't mean that other businesses are open this is a hair salon here right off of highway 49 they had a resort to the nineteenth nineteen seventies technology to get some light in here obviously they're open but that doesn't mean that doesn't bring any difficulties for the owner here Donnell you're busy going here working it's kind of tough for you right it is tough and along with the technology we've had to resort to oil lamp and Marcel iron but my poor client doesn't have warm water Oh Andy you're struggling here oh yeah I was okay until right now it's no chilly now a little chilly but my clients luckily I'm blessed they're diehards cold water power no power they're here to get their hair colored all for ten years and there's nobody like her she's amazing I know now yeah obviously there's this business here right in front of the gas station across the street that's been closed you say there was chaos since yesterday after the power shut off yeah really was not just the gas station it's been the entire community has been really affected PG&E did a great job of warning all of us Oh over again through email phone calls text messages that it was going to shut off as soon as it did and so luckily I went and got gas the night before but many did not and the two gas stations that we have here had hour and a half long waits and I saw fighting taking place people yelling people driving the wrong way down the roads because they were just not using their brain everybody's just checked out by the confusion and I mean it's just no power so I've just resorted to camping skills keep working I think I'm the only business besides those two gas stations it is open it's all part of the frustration and II know power your house correct what I actually managed to get the last bag of ice of only two supermarkets open and which worked like a zoo I managed to get the last bag by Charlotte in my freezer because everything's defrosting obviously and it was cold and I was ordered lots of candlelight and my boy was like a fleet by night against it's not no internet nothing to do so but it's good it's good to go back to basics I grew up like this cuz yeah bones fantastic so yes cold and we're just making the best we can do but with it I still of course such a struggle here in Nevada City some businesses open others closed the truth is that everyone here is hoping that the power comes back on sooner rather than later we'll set it back over to you guys alright thank you for that I'm getting the hair done and they're like you've got to stay fly I appreciate that Carlos I appreciate that perspective alright let's talk about this there was a creative sign of protest a group of PG&E customers in Nevada City put a spotlight on the situation Becca how burger went there to take a closer look at what they're talking about Broad Street which runs through the heart of Nevada City is lit by gas lamps but everything else in this town is dark we're gonna have a little light parade here and discussion about what's been going on with PG&E and what looks to be like an unnecessary power outage we're pretty supportive I'd have to say with having a power outage during any kind of catastrophic winds but we're not seeing this and and this has been a big economic hit for our community and I'm sure for a lot more communities in northern for now I own a building downtown and you know this definitely affects my business my day spa my Airbnb and just my whole life I also think that a lot of people in Nevada City and actually throughout California are saying that at this point in time we should have PG&E not be the one monopolizing our power and the only choice that we have you know I think it's a little ridiculous because there's no wind and I I totally understand cutting off the power if there's wind but it's been a non windy day and we've all lost business because of it maybe the most five mile an hour winds and that was towards the afternoon late afternoon but it's been like this and it is frustrating I understand what they're doing for other places and we have to I wish they could we're up in arms about this this is not the way to treat consumers and citizens of California I don't want to sit in five days in a house trying to figure things to do in the dark despite the outage the City Council still held there Wednesday meeting but they had to cut it short because the generator powering the lights and council chambers was running out of gas all right thank you for that Becca now a lot of people who have no power said they are not happy but they are not alone take a listen to what governor Newsom had to say about all of this you know my kids are at home right now you know I want them in school I've got a bunch of businesses that are impacted and what I you know I rather criticize Donald Trump than act like him talking about my businesses in Northern California but we're in the middle of wine crush and folks that run around trying to get generators right now the middle of crush I mean it's very consequential and by the way I'm outraged because it didn't need to happen didn't need to happen if you had a investor-owned utility was making kind of investments that your investor owned utility was making down here and focusing on modern transmit transmission lines and focusing on modern ways of turning on and off lights that wouldn't be disruptive in the aggregate two million or two million people as it potentially may impact over the next 24 to 48 hours so it was unnecessary there in bankruptcy because of their terrible management going back decades they created these conditions was unnecessary we're doing everything in our power my gosh doing everything our power to help them help themselves now it's time for them to do the right thing and get out of bankruptcy and get this system to the 21st century okay so California politicians are getting an earful as you can bet about these shut offs from voters some are even trying to direct that anger towards PG&E Brennan investigated all things politics and PG&E in our series we've been telling you about it for a while now it's called fire power money he found out that PG&E spends millions of dollars to influence politics and listen to this a lot of the politicians that are calling PG&E out right now also took cash from PG&E take a look PG&E spends a bundle of money to influence our politics it donated more than four million dollars just to state level campaigns in California last election more than 80% of the state legislature took some PG&E money just to give you an idea how widespread this is that's come to a halt since our reporting raised questions about it and got the attention of the federal judge who oversees PG&E 'z probation the company itself is a convicted federal felon still serving time on probation and right now we're dealing with power outages in California because PG&E can't be trusted to keep its power grid safe during high wind so it does deserve to have people angry at it and the governor obliged people should be outraged they should be infuriated governor Gavin Newsom was quoted saying this week it's not how things should work in the industry none of us are happy about this and yet PG&E donated more than two hundred eight thousand dollars to help elect Newsom last year as part of our reporting we did ask him this summer if he stands by taking the money and whether he'd give it back the governor refused to answer both questions but this isn't just a Democrat thing this is Doug llamosa Republican congressman it seems as if California which fancies itself as one of the top world economies is becoming a third world country he said expecting the power to stay on when the wind blows isn't that giant of a leap for mankind and yet the company that can't seem to get things right gave ylim alpha $13,000 in donation from its packs since the last election cycle and here's the rub l'm alpha represents paradise in Congress but he took 5,000 of those dollars from PG&E 's pack after last year's camp fire killed 85 people there and it wasn't just him Jim Nielsen represents paradise in the state Senate here in Sacramento he's got a headline on his official site blasting PG&E shut off as unacceptable what he can and did accept was a 64 hundred dollar donation from PG&E towards his campaign last year we asked him if he'd give it back his office never responded neither did the state's two major political parties each of which gladly accepted more than a half million dollars from PG&E last election cycle both of which have elected officials acting shocked right now that PG&E is grid is in such a mess we can't trust it not to burn us down the point is for all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about PG&E from the people in power PG&E makes a point of protecting its monopoly by pumping money into our politics when the federal judge asked PG&E why the political spending was more important than fixing its power grid the company said it wasn't but it said it spends that money to make sure its interests are quote adequately represented in the halls of power on this day when millions of us in California may literally be powerless we thought you oughta know get up-to-the-minute information during the largest planned power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News app now well the time now is 10 26 if you're just waking up or joining us on Facebook I'm Brittany Begley we've been talking about the PG&E power shutoff that's left thousands of hundred people in California without power we're alive and we're gonna continue that coverage round-the-clock with live news coverage you need to know about so take a look at this map you can see the outages people have been without power for more than a day now now the good news PG&E has restored power to 50,000 people in the Sierra Foothills and expected to restore power to another 60 to 80 thousand people by this morning we want to remind you that power is being shut off and some pretty dangerous fire weather it's windy there's no humidity and that means fires can start and spread quickly take a look at this wildfire look at this this happened overnight Moraga Kyle fire is calling them Ralph's fire you can see it on your screen I know ABC 10 Giacomo Lucca you've been updating us since we went on the air at 4:30 what can you tell us now well fortunately the fire well it's contained everybody that was evacuated the hundred 40 families that were woken up around 1:00 in the morning and forced to evacuate they're all being told that they can return back to their homes tonight so that's very thankful but of course that 40 acre fire definitely concerned some folks who have been dealing with the public safety power shutoff we talked to some of those folks who had to evacuate earlier this morning this was the prudent thing to do given the weather conditions hopefully in the future the utility will be better prepared so we won't have to have these shut offs but all things considered can put up with the inconvenience if it saved a wildfire from starting anywhere in the northern state now while this most recent Public Safety power shutoff was by far the largest and unprecedented number of customers eight hundred thousand that had their power proactively shut off for safety concerns over potential wildfire risk there have been several of these PSP S's as they are so called this year I've talked to many folks all across the region and there are some differing opinions certainly on whether or not the company should be doing this and you know but for folks at least living here today they're happy that they can get back to their homes after this evacuation after this fire certainly a big scare given what happened we'll send it back to you I bet they are thank you for your updates I know you will update us throughout the day in Vacaville winds were really whipping around today a fire broke out earlier this morning Britt Moore was there and has more on how they quickly contain that fire from spreading as well the wind is so bad right now that the Vacaville LA Fire Protection District had to call in for additional resources to help them fight an early morning brush fire happened along sunny Brook Lane Deputy Fire Chief Doug Rogers tells me one acre of land burned there were wood piles and brush around a house that house itself though did not catch on fire so they put this thing out relatively quickly but they made sure to do all they could to prevent this fire from spreading we call more resources quicker because as you can tell we can barely stand up out of here so if we do get a fire established it's really gonna take off on us the deputy fire chief telling me overnight things were relatively calm that's the good news there but they say they are ready to go just in case anything else pops off later this morning that is good to know well this week is a two-year anniversary of the Tubbs fire that devastated wine country of course our lilia Luciano went to Santa Rosa to see if the filling two years later how they are feeling about it she talked to Cal Fire Chief who responded to the tubs fire and yesterday responding to another fire in the area take a listen her in the town of Occidental and about 20 minutes west of Santa Rosa my brain can you tell me what's happened here today yeah we're a dispatch for a vegetation fire here in a Occidental right here in town on the outskirts and we had engines get here pretty quickly held it to about one acre okay and it made a pit stop very small it's it's steep as you can see it's a good stop we have a lot of people staffed up right now in preparation for the winds I heard that there were air crews that came in and were released was that what stopped it initially or were those ability well they help they give us eyes on it and we'll a retardant across the head of it to slow it down base do we know what started it no it's under investigation okay I'm not seeing it at least I'm not seeing any power lines there's no power lines did I see overhead it is two years to the day or two the day after at the beginning of the tugs fire do you work that fire what do you remember yeah we were me and all my co-workers were there that night same predictions this tonight you just never know if it's going to surface and it did surface and the wind blew hard yeah I I grew up in Coffee Park oh you did and a lot of my friends lost their own I was right there when it happened dude I've got 20 years in now and been to a lot of fires seen a lot of destruction and sadness but what's it with in my own hometown it did change things a bit knowing whose houses were burning and you reach a point though where you don't you don't really care about property you just hope everyone's okay that's all that really matters you can always rebuild but we like to win as firefighters and it wasn't that was a hard hard one because they didn't feel like we were winning at first but we got it eventually and just one of those things you can't you can't predict it you just can try your best and keep a good attitude and that for everybody safe all right and Tracy I've been telling you I'm I don't have power you don't have power yesterday I went to Target grabbed the last piece of water the last flashlight and the last phone charger come on guys well we went to go grab a generator and uh and they were all gone and then we went to Home Depot and they were all gone and finally had to borrow one someone that did not need it but at least we're using it for the refrigerator so you don't have to worry about everything going too bad right and then I have neighbors and everybody's just like what are we gonna do how much longer is it gonna be and no one knows so here's what we're looking at for today so it's 63 degrees outside winds out of the North to Northwest at 12 miles per hour humidity at 19% it is extremely dry outside the conditions it feels good though if you like the 60s 63 in Sacramento 61 in Stockton 59 in Modesto 62 in Marysville and 39 in Tahoe so we have conditions outside that are still a little brisk and blustery from time to time and here the areas that were most concerned about so here's a look at those current winds 18 mile prize wins in Sacramento 20 and Marysville 29 in Fairfield most of those wind's coming in out of the north which are drier winds they just only exacerbate the opportunity for more dry conditions moving into the area and they also tend to be warmer winds everything that you see here with the orange and the red those locations could see peak winds anywhere from 35 to 40 miles per hour here's a look at some of the highest wind gusts we passed this midnight 37 mile per hour winds in Fairfield 30 in Sacramento 37 in Fairfield you and the opportunity for a spark in there and with a decent wind coming in around 35 to 40 miles per hour it would really take a quite a bit for firefighters to kind of get ahead of that so that is the concern we are looking at critical fire weather concern so here's what we're watching as we move into time this is based on models and this is our future winds that we're expecting 9 o'clock in the morning we have some pretty gusty winds coming in giving us extreme fire danger 1:30 in the afternoon what are we still expecting what we do still have those breakouts at that orange and that red in here coming in just in parts of the North Bay coastal mountains and you're also still looking at the opportunity for that red right here those are contours in the background through South Lake Tahoe just near highway 15 at the Placerville area still looking at the opportunity for some pretty significant winds coming in from time to time and eventually as we move into later on tonight into early tonight you'll see the opportunities for those winds to lessen and diminish and the opportunity for fire weather will diminish along with that so just how dry is it outside 12% Fairfield 19% in Sacramento 13% in over an 18 percent in Placerville I always know when it's drawn I wake up in the morning and well I'm just looking for a good moisturizer right because I feel like I'm just drying out so let's revisit you know it was just almost two years ago that we had a similar scenario for weather conditions and that had a lot to do with those North Bay fires they came October the 8th 2017 and they came because of the Diablo winds that come from the direction of Mount Diablo descending wind's coming in through canyons they warm they compress and when they really start to move in they heat up that lowers the humidity and you know in some instances Diablo winds can be up to 50 degrees warmer than the surrounding air that's why we have the concern so with the winds expected to be funneling in throughout the area from time to time today we do have that wind advisory in effect until 6 o'clock this evening north to east winds gusting up to 40 miles per hour in addition to that again we do still have the red flag warning it has been extended to nine o'clock tonight for the Sacramento area and also until 11 o'clock tomorrow morning for areas closer to the Sierra the opportunity for high fire danger in the forecast outdoor burning of course is not recommended so here's some of the active fires that we have going on the meril fire in Contra Costa County 48 burn 80% containment that was the one near moraga also looking at another fire the Bryce burg fire acres burned 4500 it is 25% contained that one is in Mariposa County so those are the two active fires that we have close to our viewing area that we're going to be watching and these are some of the takeaways for high fire danger we could be looking at downed power lines and trees power outages not the ones that PG&E are you know kind of doing themselves but you can have that just by some gusty winds coming in and then fire starts could of course spread rapidly afternoon highs for today 75 in Auburn 64 in Arnolds 72 in Sonora with plenty of sunshine it's a nice day but again with those brisk winds and there from time to time we do have to be vigilant afternoon highs in Tahoe 52 for Thursday lower 60s coming in to round out the rest of the weekend and then once you take a look at the Bay Area 70 in San Francisco 81 down in Silicon Valley 72 in the East Bay and then the North Bay 78 in Napa 82 in Santa Rosa for parts of the valley floor 78 in Stockton 78 and Tracy 78 in Manteca just in case you're wondering average daytime high this time of year closer to around 81 so we're just a skosh off the mark and then 76 for Sacramento 77 for Davis 77 for Colusa and 76 degrees for Yuba City our 10 day forecast showing afternoon highs in the mid to upper 70s you could see that with plenty of sunshine in the forecast and then as we round into next week we do have a small opportunity for a few showers on Thursday I do want to let you guys know PG&E customers right now 620,000 without power that's a pretty significant number yeah that's a lot of people affected you got to think that those people are thinking about what their food is doing in the frigerator if I just bought groceries like Brittany did a hundred did I just waste that money is anybody gonna reimburse me for that money what am I gonna do with my kids while they're out of school there's a lot of people affected yeah I had to take my son to work yesterday you know I'm thinking about laundry I could I find a laundromat my laundromats in Placerville that's probably not gonna be open so a lot you don't think about until you're in that mess speaking of I know Tracy was just talking about how she has a power generator we want to make sure you hear this morning as well yeah do not I repeat do not run that generator inside your house this is why a burn firefighters have to show up to a carbon monoxide a leak at home in downtown Auburn that is not what you want someone has their generator running inside firefighters say properly placed carbon monoxide detectors saved their lives but what if they had not been in the right place and what if they hadn't been working and police in Auburn are doing extra patrols patrols in areas where the power is out the police department says they're also saying get this more people and driving erratically hmm don't do that either we want people to know just because the power's out does not mean that it's time for you to just drive crazy that is what you don't want to do Brittany I know especially with those four-way stops you're like do I go do you go and then you're in a big Matt is already confusing don't add to it it is that 1038 we're also hearing from more schools talking about confusing as far as parents and planning what to do a lot of them don't have school because of power so the whole Grass Valley School District is canceling classes and after-school programs they say they hope to have school back in the session on Friday in addition to Grass Valley Unified all for Pleasant Ridge Unified School District's are also closed in Grass Valley there also be no closed classes at Folsom Lake Community College Placerville campus and s Park though Unova Unified School District schools are also closed tomorrow we have a full list on our website ABC 10 comic as it keeps changing and we will update you and take a look PG&E has open resource centers in the community that don't have power this is a great place to go it's free you can charge your phone get AC so they have room for a hundred people it's open from 8:00 in the morning all the way to 6:00 in the evening as long as we don't have power so find a location near you at ABC 10.com you can always ask us on Facebook our team behind the scenes answering the questions throughout the day everyone staff ya know every everyone is in and everyone's we're gonna get you answers because so many people are in the dark millions of people across California are in the dark right now and most of the things that we use to keep us comfortable yes like when there's electricity when there is no electricity a lot of those things are out I know in a big question everybody in our neighborhoods asking what about cell phones will it work even though we don't have power of course we had to go right to Jayson Pickett to verify all of that for you there are multiple comments online right now that look like this quote your cell phone won't work if the power the cell towers and it will that claim sounds like common sense right if the cell towers lose power they don't function but that's not exactly true in recent years with fires across the state the California Public Utilities Commission urged cell providers to put in backup power in high-risk locations and some of them have already done that when we reached out of horizon rep said many of their towers have backup generators that they will be refilling to keep service during the outages t-mobile also said they have generators and batteries to keep services online as well as temporary generators they can move around 80 said they're working to deploy generators and equipment to keep customers connected and also opening unlimited talk text and data to users in the community we haven't heard back from Sprint yet bottom line don't just assume you won't have service the idea that all cell towers will shut down without power is actually false the major providers have generators and backup plans to keep service and that's an important distinction without power and without service people may be tempted to turn their phones off we're put them in an airplane mode to conserve battery now that's still a good idea if you can't charge your phone but also check periodically to see if you do have service and make sure there aren't any alerts or warnings for your area if you're seeing any other claims out there send us an email and we'll check them out with your verify i'm jason puckett okay so a lot of people are concerned about cell towers during shutoffs and when the power goes out that cell phone is your lifeline to help and to stay up to date but I got to tell you if you want social media a lot that runs your battery down quick and you ain't got no power you might want to judge if you need it yeah it was a good reminder last night I was like I can't get on social media even though I like it because my battery's gonna drain and then I'm gonna be in problems so we want to know our self powers affected by all these shut offs here's what state officials actually told us there's only cell towers by all providers had a battery capability for a length of time depending on the draw but generally eight hours plus most major cell components the hubs overseeing the remote cell towers have standby generation the challenge then becomes not the batteries or the generation but the capability to get fuel to them to keep them up and operational alright so let's dive a little deeper into that because these are technical guy yeah and that may not have made a mr. regular people okay so you think about the major hubs and they run for five to seven days at a time and so now they're bringing in convoys and standby generation because if the power outages withstand more than five days they're prepared with backup generators and batteries because they're needed as a backup to the backup that is good to know because I'm really thinking I'm gonna have power out for five days so at least you're prepared or you won't last that long and speaking of being prepared AT&T Wireless and AT&T prepaid customers in areas directly affected by the planned power outage in parts of California the company is providing unlimited talk text and data by issuing credit and waiving overcharged fees and I have to say I'm an AT&T customer so I am grateful at least for that yeah okay are you in the specified zip code you need to call AT&T and make sure that works make sure you contact your phone provider and make sure that you can get that discount it runs from October 9th through midnight October 13th limited time only but call AT&T and make sure that you are one of those people affected I will definitely be doing that a little bit later on today well at 10:43 if you're just joining us on facebook thinking all right what is going on well we're just keeping you up-to-date on the power outages we want to make sure that you are prepared every single way that we possibly can yeah I don't know if you know this but hundreds of thousands of California people are without power you may have already known that though and we are alive and we are continuing our round-the-clock coverage right here let's take a look at some of the outages right now some of these people you see on this map the colorful screen yeah it looks happy doesn't it they're probably really upset those people have been out of power some of them for more than a day now it started you got to think if you start at midnight last night it's been more than 24 hours PG&E has though some good news restore power to 50,000 people in the Sierra Foothills we're looking for another 60 to 80 thousand later today was supposed to be this morning we haven't gotten confirmation that PG&E has restored power in those communities yet we'll keep you posted but we also have the communities impacted at the bottom of your screen let me check to see yep down at the bottom of your screen so that you can get that information and we got your back into another way too PG&E Matt PG&E SMAP can be text to you then we keep it on the go text the word power to nine one six three two one three three one zero and we'll send you the link to this map so that you can see if the power is on or off in your neighborhood or in your friends or family neighborhood if you just trying to check on them we'll keep the number that you need to text at the bottom right hand corner of your screen yeah we're gonna continue to watch face book I'm reading some of the comments right now so yeah the power happens for your store in your house let us let us know we want to know that we do want to know that so we've been talking a lot about Placerville obviously parts they don't have power but one bar said all right we're gonna have some fun so a Clary are buy a bar sorry karaoke bar let's start that again are used generators to stay open to help people smile okay yeah we need some good news and all of this irritation right paint Kevin Aros made his night there I think he may have had a good time but I want you to take a look at this you guys I'm gonna good Wednesday night in the darkness even with the lights off some in Placerville are finding their way to enjoy their nights yeah we keep it lit even when it's not as they look for spark of normalcy well Wednesday nights are always karaoke [Applause] and the fact that they still did it on a blackout is pretty extraordinary yeah and you know we wanted to be upset and mad about it but we decided to embrace it we might have to do a blackout Wednesday once a month owner al Griffin knew people needed a place to come together in this world people like Neil frozen this is my place man this is my home across the street Binet's Italian restaurant also kept the lights on so we went to plan B which is almost like survival mode bringing a different atmosphere but people still looking for normal a couple of days without power I can deal with that so whether you prefer the quiet [Music] or karaoke everyone is looking for the light inside the darkness we created a family here thank heaven arrow ABC 10 all right that was mean Kevin are all helping us out we have to pull in a team you know discuss some coverage we want a sure that everyone gets the latest greatest up-to-date information so we actually pulled in teams from around the company we didn't help us out with it so I was having a good time if you don't do so that is right and our team is working behind the scenes round-the-clock to answer your questions so we are looking at your facebook comments Utley is saying hey I'm from Fairfield what's gonna happen when will my power go on how about wind conditions in that area was windy this morning okay so windy this morning still windy through this afternoon and you know what it has been extended that red flag warning until nine o'clock tonight so the winds are still gonna be in play when your power goes back on I'm with you Shelley I want to know when my power is going back to you tomorrow did you hear the collective means when you said let me tell you what I haven't heard we don't have a how are you do it where's our invite yes I invited you don't we do I mean I you know I already get up to the band information during the largest planned power outage in state history affecting 800,000 customers in more than 30 counties be the first to know breaking updates and alerts delivered straight to your phone download the ABC 10 News 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Channel: ABC10

Views: 19,013

Keywords: pge power shut off, pge, pge power outage, power outage, power outage california, power outage ca, pg&e, fire danger, pg&e shuts off power, pg&e power shut off, pge power shutoff, public safety power shutoff, pg&e power outage, bay area power outage, pg&e power shutdown, pge shut off map, pg&e power shut off map, pacific gas and electric, power outage map, pge outage, pge power outage map, pge planned power outage, abc 10, sacramento news, power shut off

Id: DwIqgMKXLKg

Length: 108min 16sec (6496 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019