Some people in the wine country counties of
Nearly 170,000 initially lost electricity, but the shut-offs that started Wednesday morning were expected to affect more people as the outages spread to 18 counties and last into Thursday.
A virtually rainless fall has left brush bone-dry and forecasts called for low humidity and winds gusting at times to 55 mph (89 kph), which might fling tree branches or other debris into power lines, causing sparks that could set catastrophic fires in the region,
The blackout is the latest in a series of massive outages by the country’s largest utility, including one last month that affected nearly 2.5 million people and outraged local officials and customers who accused the utility of overkill. Officials have accused the company of using the blackouts as a crutch after years of failing to harden its infrastructure to withstand fire weather.
Corporation CEO
Meanwhile, California’s utility regulators are demanding answers from wireless, internet and landline providers whose equipment failed during the previous outages, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without a way to get emergency alerts or make 911 calls.
Representatives from eight communications companies, including
Verizon, T-Mobile and
In a letter calling for the meeting, commission President
Some local public officials who planned to speak at the hearing could not because of the latest power outage. And
He said AT&T’s network went down right away during an outage in late October, risking the county’s sewer and alarm systems. There was no backup in place, he said.
“That really put us in a dire straits situation,” he said.
Batjer told communications company representatives she was surprised by their lack of preparation given California’s long history of wildfires.
“It’s sort of stunning that you go, ‘Well, we just learned a lot in the last three weeks,’” she said.
More than 450,000 people were left without communications, according to a group representing rural counties in
Consumer advocates urged the commission to establish backup power requirements and make the companies provide detailed information about outage locations.
In written responses in advance of Wednesday’s meetings, the companies said they did communicate with authorities but the outages were unprecedented in scope. The companies said they are improving backup power sources but added that doing so might not be possible in some locations and that generators are not always safe.
Comcast said that its network “like any modern network, fundamentally relies on commercial power to operate.”
Meanwhile, warnings of extreme fire danger covered a large area. California’s state fire agency placed fire engines and crews in position in some counties and had crews ready to staff aircraft and bulldozers.
The weather was expected to ease by Thursday morning, allowing
One
The northern
“This lack of rain is keeping the threat of fire very real, this late in the season, in many areas,” Strenfel said.
In
Wet conditions made for a slippery Wednesday morning commute in
Voluntary evacuation warnings were issued for a few communities in an area of
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed., source