Editor’s note: For a better understanding of the power grid, check out the map we built, at this link.
UPDATE 10: 45 p.m. — Readers are reporting that parts Fort Bragg and the town of Mendocino have been re-energized, but that Point Arena is still dark, as is much of the Anderson Valley. According to a 10 p.m. press release from PG&E, a total of 53,000 customers across California remain shut-off, although 312,000 customers, including most of Mendocino County, regained power today.
MENDOCINO CO., 10/30/19 — PG&E gave Mendocino County the “all clear” on power restoration this morning, and with the power back on in much of the county, Mendocino officials declared a local emergency this afternoon. Nearly all of the county has been turned back on, from Hopland to Covelo and Leggett, though much of the coast, from the town of Mendocino north, and the Anderson Valley, remained electricityless as of around 9:30 p.m. tonight.
Leggett and Piercy were restored Tuesday morning along with Humboldt County. Gualala and Point Arena, as well as Ukiah, and later Willits and Laytonville were restored this afternoon. Potter Valley and Redwood Valley found themselves with electricity this afternoon as well. Later tonight Covelo and Hopland got power but Mendocino and Fort Bragg are still blackedout.
The county’s local emergency declaration is intended to allow county officials to seek additional state and federal funds to help recover after the power shut-offs, which along with significant costs, brought freezing temperatures, gas shortages, and inconsistent landline, cell, and have had a significant impact on residents, particularly low or fixed income people, the elderly, the homeless, and those with medical conditions.
County and city officials, as well as a variety of local businesses, scrambled to open their doors to provide basic services, along with hot food, wifi, and information for the public, as well as both a wildfire evacuation center and a inclement weather shelter, to supplement the three PG&E “community charging stations” in the county, which had varying degrees of amenities.
Here’s the full announcement from the County of Mendocino. You can also read our previous coverage of the restoration process from this morning’s “all clear” declaration.
PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff Update and Local Emergency Declaration
Post Date: 10/30/2019 6:01 PM
The County of Mendocino is currently monitoring the restoration progress for the October 29 Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) event in Mendocino County. This event is very dynamic, and the County is dependent on PG&E to provide accurate, updated information that can be shared with the public.
On October 30, 2019, at 6:00 AM, PG&E announced that areas within the scope of the PSPS event for Mendocino County are “all clear” of the weather event and PG&E staff began assessment of the lines followed by restoration of power to the lines.
Portions of Mendocino County including the communities of Gualala, Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Potter Valley, Willits and Laytonville were restored the afternoon of October 30. Restoration will continue into tomorrow, Thursday, October 31, due to restoration efforts only occurring during daytime hours.The extended power outages countywide continues to severely impact the County resulting in a declaration of a local emergency at 4:30 pm by Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer/Office of Emergency Services Director, Carmel J. Angelo. The local declaration will assist Mendocino County in bringing additional resources to help our community recover from the outages.
For more information, please contact the Executive Office at 707-234-6030. For updated County information on the public safety power shut off, please visit www.mendocinocounty.org/psps or follow the County on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mendocinocounty and twitter https://twitter.com/countymendocino. Residents can submit complaints related to the PG&E PSPS event to the County at (707) 234-6300.
Here is a comment from Supervisor Ted Williams about his understanding of the electrical lines.
PG&E remains hopeful that the entire county *could* be restored by midnight. The distribution system was cleared earlier and personnel are in the field troubleshooting. Crews are able to work in the dark, because the remaining effort involves only substations. Fifteen lines were impacted by Sonoma’s Kincade fire. Difficulty maintaining voltage of the transmission system caused the outage from Albion to Road 409 +/- (as some were just beginning to shower and wash dishes). The present problem involves the coastal 60kv and balancing it with the 115kv coming from Lake and eastern Mendocino County. Hopland might be energized soon, but with system stability at the root problem of the present outage, we’re uncertain any area will remain energized. It’s my sense that PG&E is unable to restore us to the exact configuration in place at time of shut-off due to the Sonoma incident. (Perhaps I’m wrong, but this is my read.) CEO Carmel Angelo and I will be in contact with PG&E around midnight irrespective of success and we will share what we learn. Hope for the best and plan for the worst. We’ll get an early start on the gas/delivery shortages to understand why, seeing that electricity and Sonoma fire should not be impeding the flow.
Mendocino County Supervisor Ted Williams
