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County Of Sonoma › Administrative Support & Fiscal Services › County Administrator's Office › Fact Sheet PGE Power Shutoff and Fire Weather Watch
County Administrator's Office

Fact Sheet – PG&E Power Shutoff & Fire Weather Watch

Published: October 07, 2019

Weather

A Fire Weather Watch has been issued by the National Weather Service and includes all of Sonoma County with the exception of the coastal range from Wednesday 5 a.m. (10/9) to Thursday 5 p.m. for strong and gusty offshore winds and low humidity.

Santa Rosa Fire Department will be one of several agencies across the County that will have extra staffing in place for the critical fire weather. 

Public Safety Power Shutoff Watch

PG&E has issued a Public Safety Power Shutoff Watch for Wednesday, October 9th, 2019 at 4:00 a.m. until Thursday, October 10th, 2019 at noon affecting the County. If fire weather conditions persist, PG&E may potentially shut power off.

PG&E indicates it may take up to five days to restore power to all customers (i.e. not all customers will be without power for 5 days).

PG&E has not yet made a definitive decision to shut power off in any locality identified for this watch in Northern California. There are 29 counties in Northern California affected, including Sonoma County.

In preparation of a power shut off, both the County of Sonoma and City of Santa Rosa have opened a Joint Information Center (JIC).

The City activated their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 8th. The County of Sonoma will activate their EOC at 09:00 a.m on Tuesday, October 9th.

The County has declared a proclamation of local emergency and the City is in the process of drafting a proclamation of local emergency, so that both agencies may be better prepared to quickly respond to the needs of the community in the event of a widespread shutdown.

Although City and County are taking action to respond to the potential impacts of an extended loss of power should it occur, we want our residents to know that the decision to shut down the power and the speed at which it is restored comes solely from PG&E.

Outages could impact public safety systems, communications including emergency alerts, infrastructure, water systems, transportation, schools, food storage, and the private sector.

Community Resources

Both the City and County are actively monitoring the situation with PG&E and will update the public as more is known. Residents are being updated about a potential PSPS event via social media (Facebook, Twitter, NextDoor, and Instagram). For updates, including the latest news and emergency information visit:

Residents can learn more about a PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff by visiting www.PGE.com/weather or call PG&E’s 24-hour power outage information center at 1-800-743-5002.

Residents should make sure PG&E has their most current contact information online. Customers can also update their information by phone at 1-866-743-6589 and 1-866-743-6589 for assistance in Spanish.

For questions about the possible shut off, contact Sonoma County 2-1-1. Do not call 911 unless it’s an emergency.