News

UPDATE:
According to the Humboldt Office of Emergency Services, power started going out in Humboldt around 9:30 last night. Restoration estimates remain the same. PG&E expects weather conditions to improve by 4 p.m. today, after which it will have to inspect lines before restoring power, which could take several days. See past coverage for information about charging stations, open stores and meal services.

PREVIOUSLY:
The Humboldt County Office of Emergency Services just issued an alert notifying residents that PG&E is now estimating the power in Humboldt County will shut off between 9 and 11 p.m. tonight, but warns these are estimates based on weather patterns and could change.

The office further reports that the company is now estimating it will get a weather "all clear" around 4 p.m. on Sunday but that doesn't mean the power will flicker back on then. Rather, the company will then be cleared to begin inspecting lines and repairing any damage prior to turning the power back on. OES warns this process could take 48 daylight hours — or roughly four days — meaning that even if the weather calms by tomorrow afternoon, power may not be restored to all Humboldt County customers until Thursday.

The bottom line is this remains a very fluid event contingent on weather conditions — with outage and restoration time estimates having changed repeatedly throughout the day — and customers should continue to prepare for the outage to begin at any time and to be without power for some days.

Here's the latest from OES:

PG&E now estimates the Public Safety Power Shutoff will occur sometime between 9:00 pm and 11:00 pm tonight. Again, these times are estimates given the ever-changing nature of the weather event. These delays in the power shut off are in part because PG&E is trying to limit the time that customers are impacted. The estimation for the weather “All clear” is on Sunday, 10-27-2019 at 4:00 pm. This weather “All clear” time is NOT when the power will come back on. The weather “All clear” time is the time when PG&E personnel can begin inspecting the lines. It can take up to 48 daylight hours from the weather “All clear” time until power is restored because any damage found during the inspection will need to be repaired prior to power restoration.