PG&E says wildfire blackouts to begin late Wednesday. Winds coming in two waves

PG&E Corp. said Tuesday it expects to begin blacking out thousands of customers Wednesday evening as high winds raise the risk of wildfires.

With California’s worst-ever wildfire season continuing, the utility said its latest “public safety power shutoff” is expected to leave 54,000 homes and businesses without power through late Friday night across parts of the Sacramento Valley, Sierra foothills and Bay Area. The blackout will strike a slightly larger population than PG&E had predicted 24 hours earlier.

The risks will come in two waves. PG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said the “dry Diablo wind event” will begin Wednesday afternoon, with the first blackouts expected around 6 p.m. Winds are expected to blow fiercely through mid-day Thursday before subsiding for a few hours. Then the wind will pick up again Thursday evening, Strenfel said, before it dies down and PG&E issues the “all clear” sign, sometime Friday morning.

Once that announcement is made, it usually takes 12 hours for PG&E to inspect power lines for wind damage and turn power back on. Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s incident commander, said most customers should have electricity restored by late Friday.

A red flag warning, signifying elevated wildfire danger, was issued earlier Tuesday for most of Northern California by the National Weather Service. Temperatures will be in the high 80s with low humidity.

Strenfel said some Bay Area communities could see gusts as high as 55 mph.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said areas expected to get blacked out include portions of Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba counties.

The company said it will open 40 community resource centers for the duration of the blackout. The centers provide water, snacks, electricity for charging phones and other amenities.

PG&E is under intense pressure from state officials to avoid causing more wildfires with its equipment, and has ramped up its use of planned blackouts the past two years after being driven into bankruptcy by liabilities from the 2017 wine country fires and November 2018 Camp Fire. Wednesday’s blackouts will be the third imposed by PG&E in a little over a month.

Last week it revealed it’s under investigation in connection with the Zogg Fire, which killed four people last month in a rural area of Shasta County. The fire burned 56,338 acres and is 99% contained.