SAN FRANCISCO -- Northern California officials urged residents to leave homes in the hills, secure backyard furniture and other loose items and have an evacuation plan ready ahead of powerful winds that could lead to widespread electricity outages and leave more than 1 million people in the dark.
Pacific Gas & Electric said it could black out customers starting today in 38 counties to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires as bone-dry, windy weather returns to the region. In the San Francisco Bay Area, some customers in every county except for San Francisco could see their power shut off.
The safety shutoffs were expected to begin as early as this morning and last into Tuesday, affecting 466,000 homes and businesses, or more than 1 million residents, assuming between two and three people per home or business customer.
The winds that could potentially be the strongest the region has seen in 20 years could topple trees and power lines or or other equipment that in recent years have been blamed for igniting huge and deadly blazes in central and Northern California, officials said.
East of San Francisco, the city of Berkeley recommended residents consider leaving the hills before this afternoon, especially if they would have trouble getting out quickly during a fire.
In neighboring Oakland, at least 10 parks will close today and Monday. Cities throughout the region planned to open emergency operations centers and add additional police officers and firefighters to proactively patrol. Officials were also encouraging people to have their cellphones fully charged, or if they have a landline, have an old-fashioned phone and not one that depends on electricity.
"I would ask all of the people who live in high-impact areas mimic us and plan ahead of time and do the planning with their neighbors, with their families and within their own households so that if they are asked to evacuate they're ready and not just then starting to figure it out," Oakland Assistant Fire Chief Robert Lipp said.
While about one-third of the affected customers will be in the Bay Area, cuts are predicted to encompass parts of the Sacramento Valley, the northern and central Sierra Nevada, the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Central Coast and parts of southern Kern County.
The projected shutoffs included 19,000 customers in parts of Butte County, where a November 2018 blaze ignited by PG&E equipment destroyed much of the town of Paradise, Calif., and killed 85 people. A blaze in the Oakland hills in October 1991 killed 25 people.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for many areas, predicting winds of 35 mph or higher in San Francisco and lower elevations and up to 70 mph in mountains.
