- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Public safety power shutdown affects thousands of Lake County residents; most school districts to be closed Monday
Overnight and into Monday, nearly 12,000 Lake County customers were out of power due to the shutoff, based on the PG&E outage map.
PG&E reported that the power outages began just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday, when the power was cut to 2,800 customers in Kelseyville, followed by shutoffs to Lakeport, where almost 500 customers were impacted.
Minutes later, the outages began for 3,400 Clearlake residents, nearly 4,500 residents in Hidden Valley Lake and Middletown, and about 800 more customers in the Glenhaven and Clearlake Oaks areas, where the last of the outages began at 8:40 p.m., according to PG&E records.
The power cutoff in Lake County and other sections of the North Bay – including Napa and Sonoma counties – was the second phase in PG&E’s planned power shutdown that began early Sunday evening in the Sierra foothills, as Lake County News has reported.
Areas in Lake County not impacted included the Northshore communities of Lucerne, Nice and Upper Lake. PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras had confirmed to Lake County News on Sunday afternoon that those areas were not to be included, and only small portions of Lakeport would be impacted.
However, almost every other community in the county saw some outages.
PG&E said power is expected to be restored by Monday night, although some areas could be out of power into Tuesday.
The result was that on Sunday evening numerous school closures were reported for Monday.
They included the Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown school districts, the Lake County Office of Education’s Clearlake Creativity and Hance Schools, and the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College in Clearlake.
Mendocino College said it would make a decision about whether or not to open early on Monday morning.
The Lucerne and Upper Lake school districts said school would be in session on Monday.
The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services reported that, in response to the dangerous fire weather conditions, it has strategically prepositioned critical fire response resources – including strike teams of fire engines, firefighters, water tenders and emergency dispatchers – in Alameda, Contra Costa, Lake, Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties.
In the Lake County operational area, Cal OES said it had sent one task force of Type-3 engines, a water tender and a leader, and one additional water tender. A task force is five fire resources of different types/vehicles.
Cal OES said those resources are expected to remain in place until fire weather conditions improve in the region, adding that more resources could be staffed up in response to changing weather conditions across the state.
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