PG&E Weekend Power Outages May Hit South San Francisco Area

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As many as 850,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers could lose power this weekend — including approximately 65,000 in San Mateo County — in the latest public safety power shutoff triggered by fire weather conditions.

Forecasted high winds and dry air could be one of the most powerful wind events in Northern California in decades, according to PG&E, with widespread winds of up to 60 miles per hour and gusts reaching up to 70 miles per hour in higher elevations.

The expected shutoffs are expected to begin Saturday around 7 p.m. in San Mateo County. Customers in portions of 36 counties could lose power at some point, though the times vary by region, as seen in the below graphic.

The City of South San Francisco sent out an alert with the following information about what they're doing:

• The Fire Department has added an additional fire and ambulance crew, and the Police Department has increased staffing, in anticipation of a higher than normal call volume.
• City staff have contacted care facilities, the Dialysis center, and Kaiser Hospital to keep them informed and prepared.
• City Emergency Services personnel are working at our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to monitor the situation, and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members are on standby to assist the public as needed.
• The Public Works department has tested city generators to ensure continued operation of critical services such as the 911 Dispatch Center and the Water Quality Control Plant, and have staff on standby to respond if needed.

What's more, the city says the main library on West Orange Avenue will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, "providing those without power a free public place to charge phones, enjoy air conditioning, and, of course, read books with the lights on!"

Power may be off for 48 hours.

All Bay Area counties except San Francisco are expected to experience outages over the next three days.

Residents can visit pgepspsmaps.com/addresslookup to check whether their address will be affected, and view PG&E's outage maps here, although the maps only show approximate information.

PG&E has been shutting off power proactively to prevent wildfires after utility lines started massively deadly and destructive fires over the last two years. PG&E has estimated that similar power shutoffs may be necessary for the next decade until the utility can upgrade its technology.

But despite a power shutoff in Sonoma County on Wednesday night, an investigation has begun into damaged PG&E equipment found near the origin of the Kincade fire, that's destroyed more than 20 homes.

Here's a map of the planned shutoff area around South San Francisco. (Again, the most accurate information can be found using PG&E's address lookup):

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report