PG&E power shut off in Northstate due to high wildfire risk continues into Wednesday

SHASTA COUNTY, Calif. — Residents in several Northern California counties experienced a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) from Tuesday, July 2, to Wednesday, July 3, due to an elevated wildfire risk.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) turned off power for around 1,900 customers, as winds picked back up in the Sacramento Valley and foothills Tuesday evening.

Impacted customers also previously had power turned off on Tuesday morning before being briefly restored because of a break in weather, PG&E said in a press release.

According to an update from PG&E, around 2,200 PG&E customers were without power systemwide on Wednesday, July 3, and 10,000 customers had received notices of a power shutoff delay.

PG&E said, by 12 p.m. Wednesday, they expect to have an "all clear" and will begin patrols, assess for damage, make repairs and restore services for impacted customers by the evening.

Find the latest updates from PG&E here.

PG&E said they were monitoring a weather event with winds and low humidity forecasted to start late Monday evening, July 1. Due to the severe weather in the forecast, PG&E activated its Emergency Operations Center and sent two-day advanced notifications in targeted areas where they may need to proactively turn power off for safety to reduce the risk of wildfire from energized powerlines.

The potential PSPS event began early Tuesday morning and could last through Wednesday night. Up to 12,000 customers could lose power in targeted parts of eight counties:

• Shasta - 8,888
• Tehama - 1,855
• Colusa - 550
• Glenn - 361
• Yolo - 204
• Solano - 96
• Lake - 49
• Napa - 9

PG&E says customer notifications via text, email and automated phone calls, began Sunday, June 30—two days before the shutoff. Customers can look up their address online to determine if their location is being monitored for the potential PSPS on the PG&E website.

Once severe weather has passed, PG&E said they will work quickly to patrol and inspect lines to restore power for customers as soon as possible. However, the utility said power might not be restored for some customers until 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Eight Community Resource Centers (CRC) will be available in the affected counties. To accommodate the heat, CRCs will receive additional ice for customers. Additionally, each center offers ADA-accessible restrooms, device charging, Wi-Fi, blankets, air conditioning, bottled water and snacks. You can find a CRC by utilizing the PG&E outage center. CRCs are identified by small outlet icons.

During the outage, the Glenn County Sheriff's Office says a CRC with air conditioning will be provided by PG&E at Elk Creek High School.

As of Tuesday, July 2, there were no official county-operated cooling zones, but unofficial cooling zones have been set up across the Northstate.

In Butte County, Safe Space Chico has opened a cooling space at the Faith Lutheran Church at 667 E. 1st Ave. The charity is also in need of donations.

In Glenn County, community libraries are open and air-conditioned, along with malls and senior centers.

Tehama County officials say they'll open cooling centers once daytime temperatures reach 106 degrees and nighttime temperatures remain above 80 degrees for two consecutive nights. Until then, the Red Bluff Community Center, libraries and the Path Homeless Shelter are open for people to beat the heat.

Shasta County community libraries are also open for folks to seek respite from the high temperatures. Seniors in Anderson can take advantage of the Anderson Frontier Center to stay cool.

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