NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Monday night that it had restored power to nearly all of the 65,000 customers whose power it turned off on Sunday in response to a red flag warning.

The company said it reduced the scope of its public safety power shutoff from 89,000 customers in 16 counties to 65,000 customers in 15 counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama and Yuba counties.

As of Monday night, 1,300 customers were awaiting restoration, PG&E said.

In Lake County, PG&E said 55 customers, two of them in the medical baseline program, were impacted, along with two customers within Sonoma County. A few customers in Kern County had initially been included, but due to improved weather conditions, were removed from the scope.

The shutoffs began early Sunday morning and continued into the evening, when Lake County’s customers – in an area near the Lake and Napa County line south of Middletown – were reported to have had their power shut off.

On Monday morning, PG&E said meteorologists in its Emergency Operations Center issued a weather all-clear for most – but not all – areas impacted by the shutoff.

PG&E crews – consisting of nearly 1,700 ground personnel and 50 helicopters – then began inspecting nearly 3,915 miles of transmission and distribution lines for damage or hazards.

They began to restore powers to customers in areas where no damage or hazards to the company’s electrical equipment was found.

However, PG&E said preliminary data from the inspections revealed 13 instances of weather-related damage and hazards in the PSPS-affected areas. Examples include downed lines and vegetation on power lines.

The company said that, had it not deenergized power lines, those types of damage could have caused potential wildfire ignitions.

During the wind event, PG&E said top wind speeds throughout the power shutoff area included 61 miles per hour sustained and 73-mile-per-hour gusts on the Mt. St. Helena West weather station in Sonoma County; 44-mile-per-hour sustained winds and gusts of 72 miles per hour at Jarbo Gap in Butte County; and at Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, sustained winds were recorded at 52 miles per hour, with gusts of 66 miles per hour.

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