PG&E racing to restore power to thousands in Northern California following weekend storm
VACAVILLE — Personnel from the Pacific Gas and Electric emergency operations center in Vacaville started storm prep ahead of this past weekend's storm, but now the damage is done and they are aiming to restore power to those still in the dark by the end of Thursday.
"You know the storm is bad when the rain is hurting your face when it's hitting," PG&E employee Carlos Vidales said.
This past weekend's storm was historic, with hundreds of thousands of people across our region losing power.
"When it went out, I knew it was bad everywhere. I have the generator but I didn't think it was going to take three days," Yolo County resident Joe Nipe said.
So why does it take days to get power back on after a storm like this?
"It takes time to assess damage, and one of the critical pieces of getting access to the areas is the damage and making sure there is safe access," said Ahmad Ababneh, a deputy incident commander with PG&E.
Around 550 crews were out working statewide Tuesday to clean up and restore power, but they can't always access the damage by truck and sometimes have to walk out all the equipment.
"We're not going to send our guys in there to get hurt," Vidales said. "Sometimes, we'll just have to wait it out until it's safe to get in there and do the work."
Crews are up against downed trees and downed lines.
"I would like to do some shopping, but for the last three days, I haven't been able to take a shower," Nipe said.
PG&E prioritizes downed lines, downed trees, and downed wires near vegetation. Once those emergencies are taken care of, they then focus on critical infrastructure like hospitals, 911 call centers and schools. After that, they focus on restoring power to medical-based customers who rely on powered equipment. All of this is done while considering crew safety.
"Our homes are out of power – our neighbors, everyone we know. We're working our best to get everybody on," Vidales said.
Extra crews from out of state are being brought in for support. They'll be coming from Oregon, Montana, the East Coast and even Canada to reach the common goal of restoring power for everyone.
PG&E customers can view the status of outages at the company's website.
