PG&E crews are working Thursday to restore power to 179,000 customers across 17 counties after it shut off power due to dangerous fire weather.
The utility issued "all clears" earlier in the day in most impacted counties to allow crews to inspect equipment and lines before restoring power. PG&E expects all customers to be restored by Friday night or sooner, pending any damage found on the system.
PG&E late Thursday said 56,000 customers in the impacted areas were still without power.
This latest round of outages started Wednesday afternoon in the Sierra foothills and in the North Bay. A section of the Peninsula went dark early Thursday morning, according to PG&E.
- Click here to learn more about PG&E's public safety power shutoffs
- Enter your address to find out if your area is impacted by the shutoffs
- Review this checklist to see what you should do during a shutoff
In the Bay Area, the shutoffs affected tens of thousands of customers in portions of Napa, San Mateo and Sonoma counties, according to PG&E. Here's a breakdown of the impact:
- Napa County: 7,085 customers in Angwin, Calistoga, Deer Park, Lake Berryessa, Oakville, Pope Valley, Rutherford, St. Helena.
- San Mateo County: 1,005 customers in La Honda, San Gregorio, Woodside, unincorporated San Mateo County.
- Sonoma County: 27,837 customers in Annapolis, Boyes Hot Springs, Cloverdale, Fulton, Geyserville, Glen Ellen, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Kenwood, Larkfield, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Windsor, Stewarts Point..
PG&E cut power to more than 2 million people across the Bay Area in rolling blackouts from Oct. 9-12, paralyzing parts of the region in what was the largest deliberate blackout in state history. Schools and universities canceled classes and many businesses were forced to close.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday addressed the outages and had some choice words about the utility.
"It is infuriating beyond words to live in a state as innovative and extraordinarily entreupeneural and capable as the state of California to be living in an environment where we are seeing this kind of disruption and these kinds of blackouts," Newsom said. "It's about decades of mismanagment. It's about focusing on shareholders and dividends over you and members of the public. It's a story about greed. And they need to be held accountable."
PG&E said the shutdowns are not about money.
The only goal "is to prevent a catastrophic wildfire," PG&E Bill Johnson said earlier in the week.
