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California energy companies are watching the wind, and the wildfires. The San Francisco Bay Area power supplier, PG&E, has announced they may decide to stop supplying power to residents and businesses in the Bay Area if the wind begins to blow. Spokespeople have said power could be turned off for as long as seven days to homes and businesses.
California preppers! It’s time to get yer role model on!?
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/PGE-may-cut-power-to-30-counties-wind-14498467.php
PG&E is monitoring 30 of California’s 58 counties for a potential power shut-off due to a “severe wind event” forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for the North and East bay hills, Santa Cruz Mountains, and the North Bay and East Bay valleys. The alert is for Tuesday night through Thursday. Because of dry conditions, very low humidity and gusting winds, there’s a high potential for fire danger.
PG&E announced Monday morning it is watching weather conditions in order to determine if power needs to be turned off in Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba counties.
MORE: Days-long PG&E outages may be coming. Here’s what to do if you lose power for days
https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/prepare-pge-power-shutoff-backup-wildfire-season-13902288.php
( that should be fun to witness )
Significant winds will be coming out of the northwest, blowing from inland areas toward the ocean. These are the gusty conditions that create critical fire weather. The north to northeast winds, often called Diablo winds, will be blowing 15 to 25 mph with isolated gusts up to 45 mph.
The shut-off warning comes just a day before the anniversary of the North Bay Fires; the destructive series of wildfires sparked on Oct. 8, 2017.
If your power is going to be shut off, PG&E says it will contact you via telephone, text and/or email with a timeline for shut-offs. PG&E recommends unplugging or turning off appliances to avoid damage caused by a power surge. If possible, keep cell phones and other devices charged and make sure your supply of flashlight batteries is fully stocked.
(I think they mean to charge all the phones and devices now,
before they turn off the power)
In addition, ATMs and gas stations may be out of service during outages so prepare accordingly.
(ATM’s? How are people supposed to buy their herwin?)
BART is not expecting to be impacted by any outages, as they have generators and power redundancies with which to operate trains.
(Translation: Leave. Take the train to anyplace so we don’t
have to deal with your bitchin about having no power)
For the latest on PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoffs, visit their site.
https://www.pge.com/en_US/safety/emergency-preparedness/natural-disaster/wildfires/public-safety-event.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_pspsupdates
ALSO: Bay Area officials advise residents against using N95 masks for wildfire smoke
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/N95-mask-wildfire-smoke-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-14428384.php
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California Public Safety Logic, on display! Their advice for residents in areas where the air is smokey from wildfires is to stay indoors where the air is clean and filtered by the A/C and/or a HEPA air filtering system . . . as they turn off the power . . . and shut down the gas stations. No wonder there are riots, people trying to dutifully follow instruction are freakin’ confused! :-))
May all the good people of the area escape this season’s fires, unscathed. And may the panicky and unprepared only do damage to themselves and their own, learning along the way.
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