PG&E issues ‘all clear’ as winds abate. It takes hours to restore power after blackouts

PG&E Corp. issued an “all clear” notice early Wednesday, saying fierce Diablo winds have died down and it could begin restoring power to 172,000 homes and businesses in Northern California after a wildfire-safety blackout that began Monday night.

The lights should be back on for most customers by Wednesday evening.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it would dispatch 60 helicopters, an airplane and 3,000 employees to inspect power lines for wind damage — a necessary step before it can turn the electricity back on.

It said its weather stations recorded winds topping 60 mph in multiple locations, including a 66 mph gust in the remote Jarbo Gap area of Butte County, the general area where a faulty PG&E transmission line ignited the deadly Camp Fire two years ago.

The “public safety power shutoffs” began late Monday in 22 counties, mainly in the Sierra foothills north and east of Sacramento and in the North Bay wine country.

PG&E’s meteorologists began issuing “all clear” signs in portions of the blackout territory late Tuesday and expected to finish that phase of the process by 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The blackout is the first wildfire-safety power outage imposed by PG&E this year. The utility engineered a series of much larger shutoffs last October, blacking out millions of homes and angering public officials, and since then PG&E has implemented new protocols and equipment to reduce the size and scope of shutoffs.