City and Highway 12 corridor sit outside PG&E's possible shutoff area, for now: 1,783 Sonoma County customers are in scope

SONOMA: Most of Sonoma should keep its lights on later this week, but the hills around the Valley are a different story. The City of Sonoma said on October 13 that it is monitoring elevated fire weather conditions expected later this week, along with a potential PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff affecting portions of Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley. At this time, the city says, neither the City of Sonoma nor the main Highway 12 corridor through Sonoma Valley is anticipated to be within the potential shutoff area.

The areas currently identified for possible shutoffs sit primarily in higher-elevation locations surrounding the Valley, according to the city, and PG&E is considering a shutoff in those areas beginning around midnight between Wednesday, October 14 and Thursday, October 15. The city cautions that conditions and potential outage areas may change, and it urges residents who live or work outside the city, particularly in hillside and mountain areas, to check their own address directly with PG&E rather than relying on regional maps.

Richard Wood, via Wikimedia Commons

Countywide, PG&E puts the possible scope at 1,783 Sonoma County customers, including 69 customers on its Medical Baseline program. The figure comes from the utility's October 13 announcement of a possible shutoff spanning about 70,000 customers across 29 counties, a breakdown the San Francisco Focal and the Redding Record Searchlight also published. PG&E sent day-ahead notifications on Tuesday to customers in the targeted areas, after an initial round of notices on Monday, and says about 5,700 customers who were first included have since been removed from the scope, while about 4,000 customers shut off earlier in the week may be affected again.

Why the utility is weighing a shutoff

PG&E ties the possible shutoff to a dry offshore wind event forecast to run from Wednesday evening, October 14, through Saturday, October 17, with Diablo winds peaking on Thursday in portions of the North and East Bay. The utility cites extremely dry vegetation and humidity expected to fall into the single digits and teens in many areas, and says turning power off in targeted areas reduces the risk of its energized lines starting a wildfire. KTVU, reporting independently, puts the possible Bay Area window at Wednesday through Saturday across parts of Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

The city's post draws a careful line on the weather itself. Citing the National Weather Service's Tuesday morning forecast discussion, the city notes gusty offshore winds, lower humidity and poor to moderate overnight humidity recovery in the North and East Bay hills and mountains, with the strongest winds in higher elevations, and says current forecasts remain below Red Flag Warning thresholds. Elevated fire weather, the city explains, is not an official warning; it describes warm, dry and gusty conditions that can raise fire risk.

Sarah Stierch, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

What residents should do now

For households inside the possible scope, PG&E says it will conduct in-person visits, when possible, to Medical Baseline customers who do not confirm they received its safety notices, with a focus on people who rely on electricity for life-sustaining equipment. The utility says it is still lining up Community Resource Centers for this event and will share locations once they are confirmed. Customers can check whether a specific address is being monitored on PG&E's PSPS updates page.

Even for residents outside the scope, the city suggests a short preparedness pass, because unplanned outages can still happen in windy, dry weather: charge phones and backup batteries, locate flashlights, make sure you know how to open a garage door manually, and review backup plans for medical equipment or other essential devices. The Post will update this story if PG&E firms up, widens or cancels the shutoff scope for Sonoma Valley.