The outages will impact up to 850,000 homes and businesses in Northern California, including parts of Oakland, Berkeley and other cities, PG&E said in a statement Friday. With wind gusts up to 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour forecast through Monday, much of the region could be without power for days. San Francisco, however, will be spared.
“The upcoming wind event has the potential to be one of the strongest in the last several years,” PG&E’s principal meteorologist Scott Strenfel said in the statement.
It will be the third time this month PG&E has resorted to massive outages to prevent its power lines from sparking fires in high winds. The strategy comes after its equipment sparked blazes in 2017 and 2018, saddling the company with an estimated $30 billion in liabilities and forcing it into bankruptcy. Leaving millions in the dark, however, has led to debate over how far California must go to prevent fires during windstorms. And despite the shutoffs, fires continue to burn.
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The real problem of 80 mph gusts simply means fire can be traveling at 80 mph so even in a car or truck you likely couldn't outrun these fires unless you had roads in a different direction that were clear of cars and trucks so you could go 80 mph in another direction so you wouldn't die.
What often happens is cinders are moving on these gusts 80 mph so that even if there were not fires downwind before there will be in about 10 minutes time or less sort of like blowtorch effect wherever it is blowing this much. So, fires can start during these winds miles and miles from the ones already being put out far downwind of the original fires.
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