Weather conditions improve, which leaves HumCo out of PG&E’s scope
On Tuesday evening, during a press conference, Mark Quinlan, Incident Commander for PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events, confirmed that Humboldt County was no longer in the PSPS scope due to weather conditions improving throughout the day.
“It’s been an aberrational complex day,” Quinlan said.
PG&E reported that 979,000 customers were impacted by the previous PSPS event and as of Tuesday evening, 67% of the customers had been restored.
With the 10/29 PSPS event looming, Quinlan said that PG&E workers had to balance managing reenergizing some customers from the previous PSPS, while de-energizing others.
Humboldt County was originally sectionalized into two geographical zones – 7 a.m. for Southern Humboldt and 9 p.m. for Northern Humboldt, which Quinlan explained that this was to monitor weather conditions.
“It’s never our intent to interrupt service earlier than necessary,” Quinlan said.
But some areas in Northern California and those in Southern parts of Humboldt were impacted by the 10/29 PSPS event, as scheduled.
Scott Strenfel, PG&E’s Principal Meteorologist, said that an “all clear” has been issued for Northen California by 8 a.m. tomorrow and potentially earlier for some.
Rain is not in the forecast for the next 7 to 10 days but no more wind shore events are expected, which Strenfel said is good news.
Fires in Northern and Southern California
But there’s still extreme fire danger for 21 million people throughout Northern and Southern California, according to PG&E.
Santa Ana is expected to have the strongest winds the county has seen since 2007, which PG&E says can last until Oct. 31.
In Los Angeles, The Getty Fire broke out early Monday morning has been rapidly burned more than 600 acres and sent people fleeing from their homes in the dark, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In Northern California, the Kincade Fire had grown to 75,415 acres by 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to Cal Fire.
Both fires are currently 15% contained.
