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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – PG&E said late Thursday that that almost all of its customers who were impacted by two overlapping public safety power shutoffs that began a week ago have had their power restored.

The public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, events that started on Friday, Oct. 26, and Tuesday, Oct. 29, both impacted all of Lake County’s customers. The majority of Lake County’s PG&E customers remained out of power over the course of both events.

Approximately 363,600 customers have been restored since the all clear for the latest wind weather event was called on Wednesday morning for areas including Lake County.

Power to an estimated 75 percent of Lake County’s 37,441 PG&E customer accounts had been restored by Wednesday night, with officials reporting that the rest were supposed to be restored by noon on Thursday.

On Thursday night, PG&E’s online outage map showed that 35 customers accounts around Howard Springs and Ettawa Springs in south Lake County remained out of power due to the PSPS. Power is expected to be restored by 9 p.m. Friday.

Another 16 customers accounts in the Cobb Mountain area are out of power due to the Kincade fire, according to the PG&E website. Because PG&E said it cannot access the affected equipment, it hasn’t given an estimated restoration time.

As of 9 p.m. Thursday, approximately 1,400 customer accounts that were impacted by the PSPS events remain out of power, PG&E said.

Approximately, 800 customers are in locations where wind-related damage to the electric infrastructure will require that repairs be made on Friday, PG&E said.

Additionally, about 1,200 customers within the footprint of the Kincade fire remain out of power due to the fire, and not the shutoff event event. PG&E said its crews now have access and have begun assessments, repairs and restoration.

PG&E said that nearly 1.1 million customers were originally impacted by the consecutive PSPS events, which spanned multiple regions of PG&E’s service area.

For the Oct. 26 PSPS, wind gusts topping 100 miles per hour were recorded in Sonoma County and 70 miles per hour or more in Butte, Santa Cruz and Sierra counties.

For the Oct. 29 safety shutoff, wind gusts were recorded in excess of 70 miles per hour in Kern County and 65 miles per hour in Sonoma County.

To date, PG&E has identified 156 instances of weather-related damage and hazards from the Oct. 26 and Oct. 29 PSPS events and is verifying hundreds of additional damage reports.

PG&E said these types of damages could lead to potential wildfire ignitions if power lines are not de-energized.

Examples of the damage found during the inspections include downed lines and vegetation on power lines.

PG&E will submit a report detailing the damages to the California Public Utilities Commission within 10 days of the completion of the PSPS.

At the height of the event, PG&E had 76 community resource centers open, which provided customers with restrooms, bottled water, charging stations for electronics, and air-conditioned seating.

More than 15,000 customers used the CRCs during the recent power safety shutoffs.

PG&E’s weather maps show no weather events through Nov. 6.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric’s effort to restore power to Lake County following two overlapping public safety power shutoffs continued overnight and into Thursday.

Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, PG&E called the “all clear” for Lake County for the latest weather event that had triggered the second outage in a week’s time.

Inspections of power equipment by PG&E employees and mutual aid workers from other utilities across the nation began at first light, company officials said, and continued throughout the day.

Power began to come on across Lake County on Wednesday afternoon after most residents had been without PG&E’s electrical services since Saturday evening.

State Sen. Mark McGuire said during a Wednesday evening meeting in Middletown that, at that point, 75 percent of Lake County had been restored, with the remaining 25 percent to have their power back by noon on Thursday.

At that same Wednesday meeting, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry said that earlier in the day Congressman Mike Thompson had been on the phone three separate times with PG&E’s president to advocate for Lake County and making sure it was prioritized for reenergization.

With power coming on around much of Lake County, most local schools and both Mendocino College and the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College announced they were planning to restart classes on Thursday morning.

Those schools remaining closed are those in the Konocti Unified and Middletown Unified school districts, Lake County International Charter School and the Lake County Office of Education’s Clearlake Community School.

As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, PG&E said it had restored power to approximately 312,000 customers – or 95 percent – since the all clear was given in the morning.

At that point, 53,000 total shutoff-impacted customers remained out of power, PG&E said.

At a Wednesday evening briefing, Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s senior director of emergency preparedness and response, said the inspections had found 83 cases of damage so far, including trees falling into poles and branches into power lines.

PG&E said late Wednesday that it has achieved 100-percent restoration in Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Madera, Mariposa, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yolo counties.

The company said that at first light on Thursday, it will continue working to restore power to customers in Lake and Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Kern, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Sonoma and Yuba counties.

PG&E will continue to operate four community resource centers in Lake County offering restrooms, bottled water, ice, blankets, food, electronic-device charging and air-conditioned seating for up to 100 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., until power has been restored.

Early Thursday, PG&E said the following community resource centers would remain available: Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave.; Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport; and Twin Pine Casino & Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown Upper Lake Unified School District, 725 Old Lucerne Road.

PG&E said it does not currently expect another significant wind event in the next seven days.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – The latest report on the Burris fire in Mendocino County shows a larger fire footprint as the incident moves within reach of full containment.

The fire began Sunday afternoon on Highway 20 and Potter Valley Road.

On Wednesday night, Cal Fire said the fire was up to 703 acres, with containment at 90 percent.

No structures remain threatened and all of the evacuation warnings previously issued have been lifted, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire also said there have been no injuries to firefighters or civilians.

Fire resources will be patrolling throughout the night to mitigate spotting, and working to strengthen and hold existing containment lines, Cal Fire said.

Resources Cal Fire said remain assigned include 304 personnel, 29 engines, one water tender, eight hand crews and two dozers.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The latest in a series of workshops on efforts to update Lakeport’s 11th Street corridor has been scheduled.

The community workshop will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

The Lake Area Planning Council is conducting the 11th Street Corridor Study.

The community workshop is planned to give the public an opportunity to help improve access and safety for walking, bicycling and transit use on 11th Street and the surrounding areas. Families and children welcome.

Funding for the 11th Street Corridor Study is paid for by a grant from the California Department of Transportation received by the Lake Area Planning Council.

Snacks and refreshments will be provided.

For more information contact Cayla McDonell at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 916-448-1198, Extension 324.
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This story has been updated with information on the dfm “Wicked Sounds” Trunk or Treat in Lakeport; also, FFA will not be at the Wildhurst pumpkin patch due to school being back in session.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s been a scary week across Lake County thanks to the lights being out, but with power now being restored many community Halloween events are going forward and promising to bring fun and some holiday spookiness.

The following is a rundown of events that have been confirmed as taking place on Halloween, Thursday, Oct. 31.

Events are listed in order of start time.

If you know of a meeting that isn’t included, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we’ll update the list and calendar.

CLEARLAKE

City Hall-Oween

The city of Clearlake will host its 11th annual City Hall-Oween from 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

There will be plenty of treats and pizza donated by Cecil’s Pizza.

All ages are welcome, with or without costumes.

American Legion Halloween Party

The American Legion will hold a Halloween party with a potluck, live music,and a pumpkin and costume contest.

Hours are 4 to 7 p.m.

The American Legion Post is located at 14770 Austin Ave.

Trunk-or-Treat

The seventh annual Trunk-or-Treat will take place at Austin Park, 14077 Lakeshore Drive, from 5 p.m. until all gremlins go home.

There will be a bouncy house, Halloween games and activities, decorated trunks and music.

At 6:30 p.m., the costume and trunk/book contests will begin.

CLEARLAKE OAKS

Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge Trunk or Treat

The Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge will hold its Trunk or Treat event from 5 to 8 p.m.

Bring the children for a safe trick or treating event, with lots of fun activities.

There will be a costume parade at 6 p.m. followed by the best costume contest. There will be prizes for three age groups: 0 to 3, 4 to 7, and 8 to 12.

Prizes awarded for best trunk will be announced at 7 p.m.

The Moose Lodge is located at 15900 E. Highway 20.

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE

Children’s Halloween Spooktacular

The Hidden Valley Lake Association will hold its Children’s Halloween Spooktacular event from 5 to 7 p.m. at the administration building, 18174 Hidden Valley Road.

There will be free goody bags, cookie decorating, crafts, fortune teller, games and costume contest.

KELSEYVILLE

Trick or Treat on Main Street

Downtown Kelseyville merchants will host trick or treaters from 3 to 5 p.m.

The event, sponsored by Oak, will have 10 businesses and agencies participating.

Trunk or Treat

The Clear Lake Riviera Community Association will hold its Trunk or Treat event from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum, 9921 Highway 281 in Kelseyville.

Bring the children, check out the creepy decorated trunks and get some candy.

LAKEPORT

Trick or Treat on Main Street

The Lakeport Main Street Association will host Trick or Treat on Main Street in downtown Lakeport from 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Come and join the fun on Halloween and go trick or treating in downtown Lakeport. Visit all of the participating merchants for some fun. There will be a costume contest that will be held at Museum Park at 4 p.m.

Trunk or Treat

Wicked Sounds-DFM is hosting a Trunk or Treat beginning at 4 p.m. at 2579 S. Main St.

There are about 15 trunks/tables handing out candy.

Haunted Lake County

Haunted Lake County will hold its scariest night yet on Thursday at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St.

This year’s theme is, “Murder Mansion: A Nightmare on Martin Street.”

Hours are 5 to 6 p.m. for children, 6 to 10 p.m. for adults.

The cost is $5 per person, with all proceeds to benefit Operation Tango Mike.

Clear Lake Baptist Church Trunk-N-Treat

Clear Lake Baptist Church will host its Trunk-N-Treat events from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

There will be candy, games and fun. Children are welcome to walk down a row of decorated trunks to receive candy, play carnival style games and have good family fun.

The church is located at 555 N Forbes St., Lakeport.

Lakeport Kiwanis Club Halloween Kids Fair

The Lakeport Kiwanis Club will host its Halloween Kids Fair from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the MAC Auditorium on the Lakeport School District Campus, 250 Lange St.

This event is free to the public and all families and children are welcome. No tickets are required.

Event highlights include games, treats, pumpkin weight guessing and costume contests with prizes.

LUCERNE

Lucerne Community Church Trunk or Treat

Lucerne Community Church’s Trunk or Treat event will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

There will be games, candy and snacks.

The church is located at 5870 E. Highway 20.

UPPER LAKE

Bachelor Valley Grange Candy Hall

The Bachelor Valley Grange will host Candy Hall from 4 to 8 p.m.

In addition to treats, they will be selling bean and cheese burritos for $2 each.

The grant is located at 9355 Government St., Upper Lake.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As power continues to be restored across Lake County following two overlapping Pacific Gas and Electric public safety power shutoffs, many of Lake County’s schools and both community colleges will return to classes on Thursday morning.

A key exception is Middletown Unified School District, which said it is remaining closed while an advisory evacuation order for the Kincade fire remains in place for the Cobb Mountain and Middletown areas and until power is restored.

As of Wednesday night, the district reported that power had not yet been restored in all areas of Hidden Valley Lake, Middletown and Cobb.

The district also reported that the football game between Middletown and Cloverdale High School has been rescheduled for Friday, Nov. 8, at Cloverdale High School.

Other schools remaining closed on Thursday include all of those in the Konocti Unified School District, Lake County International Charter School and the Lake County Office of Education’s Clearlake Community School, according to Rob Young of the Lake County Office of Education.

Young – along with posts on social media from the districts – confirmed that Lake County schools that will be open Thursday include Kelseyville Unified School District; Lakeport Unified School District, with its annual Halloween parade to go forward as scheduled downtown; the Lake County Office of Education’s Hance Community School; Lucerne Elementary School, which has a minimum day scheduled; and Upper Lake Unified School District.

Regarding the two community colleges, Mendocino College reported that power at its Ukiah campus, North County Center in Willits and Lake Center in Lakeport has been restored, and normal class schedules will resume at these three locations on Thursday.

Mendocino College said its Coast Center in Fort Bragg is still without power and classes scheduled before noon at that location on Thursday will not be held.

The Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College in Clearlake said Wednesday night that it also has power once again and so classes will be in session on Thursday.

The college asked students who have issues that prevent them from attending class to contact their instructors.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Burris fire burning near Potter Valley in Mendocino County edged closer to being fully contained on Thursday.

The fire, which began on Sunday afternoon on Highway 20 at Potter Valley Road, remained at 703 acres on Thursday evening, with containment up slightly to 93 percent, according to Cal Fire.

No structures are threatened, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire said there was one minor firefighter injury reported on Thursday.

Firefighters are continuing to patrol the fire area and extinguish interior hot spots, Cal Fire said.

The assigned resources have been reduced over the past day. Still committed to the fire are 169 personnel, 20 engines, one water tender, four hand crews and two dozers.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – Cal Fire said it has arrested a Santa Rosa man for arson after he was found setting a fire near Geyserville early Wednesday morning.

Cal Fire law enforcement officers arrested Andrew Craig Faulkner, 25, following the incident.

At 6:05 a.m. Wednesday Cal Fire responded to the 13000 Block of Rockpile Road in Geyserville on a report of a wildland fire.

Arriving engine crews confirmed the fire and were quickly able to contain it to three and a half acres, Cal Fire said.

While on scene, Cal Fire said the crews were able to identify a subject who was present in the area.

Faulkner subsequently was arrested and booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of arson of forest covered land, arson during state of emergency and burning lands of another, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire urged community members to be vigilant in their preparedness and aware of suspicious persons when a fire does start.

Suspicious activity should be reported, including the time, the individual’s physical description and a vehicle description, including the license plate number.

Always contact law enforcement, never approach a suspicious person.

Anyone with information about arson is urged to contact the Cal Fire Arson Hotline at 1-800-468-4408. Callers can remain anonymous.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors will hold a special joint meeting with the city councils of Clearlake and Lakeport on Thursday morning to confirm a state of emergency declaration issued by the sheriff and to discuss matters related to the public safety power shutoffs and the Kincade fire.

The meeting will take place beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 31, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be viewed online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county of Lake’s Facebook page.

On the agenda is consideration of a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission titled, “PSPS Events are tearing the fabric of California’s most vulnerable communities, and citizens are unable to plan their lives: When will the Commission intervene?”

The city of Clearlake and Lakeport, and the county of Lake issued a joint message on Wednesday explaining the letter:

“Many of you expressed frustration and concerns that PSPS Events cannot become the new normal in California. We are grateful for the generosity of those that shared their personal stories, and many more were severely affected and simply did not have time to convey their concerns to City and County leaders,” the message said.

“The hardships you are facing are not acceptable in any way.  These recent PSPS Events represent Lake County’s 11th disaster in a four-year period, and County and City leaders have heard loud and clear: enough is enough.  Your feedback is represented in this draft Letter to the Public Utilities Commission,” the message continued.

The local governments invited community members to come to the meeting on Thursday to provide public input.

For community members who can’t attend the meeting in person to give input, they are invited to email comments to the county of Lake at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The full text of the letter can be seen below.

Also on the agenda, Sheriff Brian Martin will provide a report on the Kincade fire – burning since Oct. 23 primarily in Sonoma County and later moving just inside Lake County’s southwestern border near Cobb – and provide an update on the impacts of the public safety power shutoffs.

One of the meeting’s main items of business will be the board’s consideration of Martin’s state of emergency proclamation issued on Tuesday.

The board also will hold a discussion regarding the county’s issues and impacts resulting from Pacific Gas and Electric’s public safety power shutoff events.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson’s memo to the board said staff is requesting an opportunity to discuss a variety of related issues and impacts with the board and councils including shutoff impacts; the PG&E application process for residents needing reimbursement for food loss resulting from the shutoff; state funding to be made available for local jurisdictions for shutoff events; and wireless data concerns and needs during shutoffs.

Huchingson said a PG&E representative has asked to attend the meeting.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.


October 31, 2019
President Marybel Batjer
California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102

Subject: PSPS Events are tearing the fabric of California’s most vulnerable communities, and residents are unable to plan their lives: when will the Commission intervene?

President Batjer and Commissioners:

As you are aware, no County is better able to understand the threat of wildfire and disaster than Lake County.

Prior to recent weeks, we had suffered ten cumulative natural disasters in a four-year period. Those disasters threatened many things that we hold dear. Through no fault of their own, a generation of Lake County’s young people will grow up with less security in their environment than any of us would like due to our repeated natural disasters, leaving them less available to benefit from formal education at a critical stage. That reality rightfully frustrates and enrages many of our residents at a core level.

Lake County residents have endured enough. Natural disasters, brought in unheard of frequency in part due to Global Climate Change, informed by human decisions made continents away from Lake County; those were enough.

Decades of State and Federal policies that isolated, rather than strengthening our communities in our times of need, deepening the human and economic suffering of our people, were enough.

Our struggles to recover from the Great Recession of 2008, and the effects of our host of deep rooted and systemic educational and economic challenges, leading to an above average violent crime rate and simultaneously underfunded public agencies, were enough.

All of these hardships were more than enough to more than frustrate the sense of normalcy of countless people in our County, and the compounding effects have already shortened lives and led to some of the worst statistical health outcomes in the United States.

Now, however, our friends and neighbors are facing a very particular and wholly unacceptable kind of human informed disaster, and the California Public Utilities Commission has accepted, even authorized this destructive, frankly abusive, pattern.

Our 11th disaster in four years was brought not by wildfire, not by flood, but by the negligence and abuse of authority of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company and the California Public Utilities Commission.

Take Marian, for example, an 83-year-old Clearlake resident who fractured multiple bones in her ankle just prior to the October 9 Public Safety Power Shutoff. Despite the fact winds were not severe in her area, she was left without power for more than 48 hours. Living alone and unable to move around her house, Marian was left without ability to contact the outside world. Her iPhone didn’t work because of the inappropriately broad footprint of that PSPS event, caused by woefully inadequate grid management. Disruptions to the phone system of her medical provider, also caused by the PSPS, delayed her access to medical care for a full week. Enough is Enough!

What about Jess, a struggling Lake County resident, who uses every dime she has to attend to the needs of her young grandson? They lost everything in their refrigerator due to the 10/9 PSPS, and were without many basics, such as hot water. Jess, like so many in our communities, reported to our Board, “It would be nice to have a generator, but we barely make ends meet as it is.” Jess is no complainer. Jess is resilient, even grateful in the face of challenge, but she is facing severe circumstances, brought by decisions of your Commission. Enough is enough!

What about family-owned businesses, like the Lake County espresso shop that lost $6,000 during the 10/9 PSPS Event, and reported, “If this goes on, it will come to a breaking point where I will not be able to pay my bills and/or my tax obligations, which are very high in the month of October.”

What about the highly popular Lakeport-based restaurant and ice cream shop, regionally famous for their outstanding burgers, that lost more than $8,000 in food and ice cream, not to mention lost sales, during the 10/9 PG&E outage? They are facing very serious decisions about how to proceed, and the owner, also a local high school teacher and engaged member of the community, said, “I employ 25 individuals who have families of their own, four with babies at home. As a small business owner, I’m all in, we count on daily sales to survive … it’s now 8 days [in October] with no power.”

What about the employees of all such California businesses, once robust, now teetering in the face of a PSPS-created unknown?

Enough is enough, but what about the innumerable low income County residents whose ability to meet even their most fundamental needs was severely threatened by loss of work and wages? We all heard of these cases through friends and family, and we helped where we could, but where was PG&E, and where was the Commission, when rent came due, and a lack of power had left these individuals subject to undue stress, late fees, credit card debt and fear of eviction, through absolutely no fault of their own? Enough is enough!

Our County government, already faltering from the many types of disasters we have recently faced, was not spared by the PSPS. We prepared in advance, and we fought with everything we had to respond once the PSPS came, spending $672,700 on generators and installation, not mention the unsustainable organizational financial and other costs associated with loss of at least 800 staff working hours in anticipation and during the 10/9 PSPS Event, alone, at a time when our departments are understaffed by greater than 20%.

Lake County’s fiscal crisis is well known, well publicized. Senator McGuire, Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry, our Board, and County staff have brought our financial condition to the attention of the State Legislature and your Commission. Did PG&E or the CPUC extend an appropriate and affordable opportunity for us to prepare our residents and governments prior to hitting us with wave after wave of outages? No. Enough is more than enough!

So many of the people affected, so many of our friends and neighbors are anonymous in their suffering. It is not an option for PG&E’s leadership and your Commission to remain anonymous while California’s most vulnerable deal with the effects of your misconceptions and wrong-headed decisions. We will not stand by, as Lake County residents continue to bear the cost!

PG&E’s horrifically maintained electrical infrastructure has been found responsible for some of the largest wildfire events in recorded history, quite possibly including the Kincade Fire, which in fact broke out during a PSPS. Those wildfire events caused financial devastation, and tore at every fiber of social fabric in California’s communities and resulted in dozens of wrong and highly preventable deaths. Yet, despite these obvious, unfathomable failures of insight from their highest leadership, your Commission has enabled the Pacific Gas & Electric Company to hold Californians hostage by initiating crippling power outages in the name of “Public Safety?”

What has been the result? Decision after decision, clearly made toward the end of protecting PG&E’s own legal interests, and their own bottom line, at thoroughly unwieldy expense to California’s utility rate and taxpayers.

Clearly, PSPS Events are not the solution, and cannot be allowed to become our new normal. The public depends on the CPUC to stand up to abuse by our Public Utilities, and they deserve much, much better.

Enough is enough, for Lake County, and all residents of California.

Sincerely,

LAKE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

Chair Tina Scott, District 4
Moke Simon, District 1
Bruno Sabatier, District 2
Eddie Crandell, District 3
Rob Brown, District 5

LAKEPORT CITY COUNCIL

Mayor Tim Barnes
Council member Mireya Turner
Council Member Stacey Mattina,
Council Member Kenneth Parlet III
Mayor Pro Tem George Spurr

CLEARLAKE CITY COUNCIL

Mayor Russ Cremer
Council member Joyce Overton
Council member Dirk Slooten
Council member Phil Harris
Council member Russ Perdock
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A Cal Fire map of the Kincade fire in Sonoma County, California, issued for Thursday, October 31, 2019.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – After a week of rapid growth, the advance of the Kincade fire was slowed to no new acreage on Wednesday as firefighters strengthened the lines around it.

Cal Fire said firefighters held the Kincade fire to 76,825 acres on Wednesday, raising containment to 45 percent.

The fire has been burning since Oct. 23, beginning in The Geysers geothermal steamfield in northern Sonoma County before making a run to the south, fanned by high winds.

There have been four injuries for first responders but none reported for civilians, Cal Fires said.

Updated damage assessment numbers show 266 structures have been confirmed destroyed and 47 damaged.

With 90,015 structures still threatened, Sonoma County officials said many evacuation orders and warnings remain in place.

The fire’s approach to Cobb Mountain led Sheriff Brian Martin on Friday to issue an evacuation warning for Cobb and surrounding communities, expanding the warning to the Middletown area on Monday.

“We know how fast fires move around here,” Martin said at a Wednesday evening community meeting on the Kincade fire held in Middletown. For that reason, Martin said he issued the warning.

While the fire has been seen creeping toward Middletown, Martin said he’s confident that firefighters are getting the fire under control.

However, until it’s no longer a threat, Martin said evacuation warnings will remain in place.

The latest mapping from Cal Fire issued overnight showed that the fire moved into Lake County’s border near Dry Creek Road, about four miles southwest of Middletown.

The edge of the fire nearest to Cobb Mountain has containment line around it, while the edge that runs from Burned Mountain south past Middletown and close to the Napa Valley line – which it hasn’t yet crossed – is still uncontrolled, based on the map.

Martin said that his agency’s personnel have contributed 24 shifts of mutual aid coverage to help law enforcement in Sonoma County. He said Lake County has similarly benefitted during its big fires, and this was an opportunity to return the favor.

Martin said the county’s emergency operations center has been activated and he has declared a state of emergency, which the Board of Supervisors will meet to ratify at a special joint meeting with the Clearlake and Lakeport city councils on Thursday morning.

Committed to the Kincade fire as of Wednesday night were 5,245 personnel, 627 engines, 48 water tenders, 27 helicopters, 97 hand crews and 67 dozers.

Officials reported that a massive amount of aircraft – air tankers, very large air tankers and helicopters – have worked the incident, with every large tanker in the state working the fire.

An estimated $24 million has been spent on air and ground support so far, and two million gallons of water and one million gallons of retardant have been dropped on the fire, according to information shared at the Middletown meeting.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.







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Oct. 24 to 31 is Bat Week, an annual international celebration of these fascinating winged mammals and the important role they play in our environment.

California is home to 25 species of bats, ranging from the commonly found Mexican free-tailed bat, a medium-sized bat that makes its home in caves, attics, under bridges and in abandoned structures, and canyon bat, smallest of California’s bats with a wingspan of about seven inches, to the western mastiff bat, which has a wingspan of almost two feet.

Bats – which are the only mammals that can fly – can be found in just about every corner of California.

They serve several hugely important functions, including pest management, pollination of rare plants and seed dispersal.

About two-thirds of bats are insectivorous. Each night, a bat will consume between 50 and 100 percent of its own weight in insects.

They protect our food crops and timber industry – worth more than $57 billion per year – and if it weren’t for bats, farmers might need to use far more chemical pesticides than they do now.

Nationwide, the service bats provide to American agriculture by suppressing insect populations has been valued at an estimated $4 billion to $50 billion per year.

Unfortunately, population declines have caused 17 of California’s 25 native bat species to receive some level of state or federal protection. And the threat is only increasing.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists are preparing for the possibility of the introduction of a fungus known to be deadly to bats.

In June, the fungus that causes White-nose Syndrome, or WNS, was detected in low levels for the first time in Plumas County.

The fungus – Pseudogymnoascus destructans – grows in and on bats’ skin during winter hibernation and spreads quickly through bat colonies.

WNS has killed more than six million bats elsewhere in the U.S. and minimizing its impacts on California’s bats is a top priority for CDFW’s Nongame Wildlife Program.

“Given the huge impact WNS has had on eastern populations of bats, and its occurrence now in Washington state, it is essential to be vigilant for signs of an outbreak of the disease in California so we can take appropriate action, when needed,” said Scott Osborn, CDFW’s lead for WNS response.

Californians can learn more about WNS, including how to report bats that could be suffering from the disease, on CDFW’s website.

In addition to reporting bats that might be suffering from WNS, other ideas to promote bat conservation can be found on the Bat Week 2019 website.

For example:

– You can report bat sightings using the North American Bat Tracker, and help biologists document the location and health of existing bat colonies.

– You can take an urban bat walk in many communities. Contact your local nature center, museum, zoo or other educational institution to see if a bat expert is available to lead a walk.

– You can build a bat house for your own yard, helping to promote a healthy environment in your own backyard.

– You can plant a bat-friendly garden that attracts night pollinators, like moths, that bats like to eat.

“In addition to the important ecosystem functions they provide, bats are simply amazing animals,” said Osborn. “They occupy a completely unique niche among animals: they fly, they use echolocation to navigate at night and capture insects in complete darkness, and many hibernate to escape the harsh conditions of winter when their insect prey is unavailable. When you consider all these adaptations are packaged in an animal that weighs about as much as a nickel, you can’t help but feel a sense of awe.”
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Wednesday morning that it issued a weather “all clear” for nearly all of the areas impacted by the Tuesday public safety power shutoff, with Sheriff Brian Martin reporting that the company has indicated most of the power to Lake County will be restored by nightfall.

PG&E said the all clear means winds subsided to safe levels, clearing the way for crews to begin safety inspections of deenergized equipment, repair any wind damage and, ultimately, restore power to hundreds of thousands of customer accounts across the region, including all of those in Lake County.

Kern County is expected to be all clear for inspections on Thursday morning, given continued significant wind activity in the southern part of PG&E’s service area.

Sheriff Brian Martin told Lake County News Wednesday afternoon that PG&E had reported that it expected to have power restored to 80 percent of Lake County’s 37,441 customer accounts by sundown on Wednesday.

The remaining 20 percent will be in spots around the county, not entire neighborhoods, Martin said.

PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras separately confirmed that power restoration time estimate.

She added that power lines in the Kincade fire area in south Lake County are not expected to be reenergized at this time.

As of 2:20 p.m., Contreras did not have numbers on how many Lake County customer accounts, if any, had been restored.

Martin said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman reported that power was on in Ukiah by Wednesday afternoon.

County officials said that that PG&E issued the all clear for Lake County at 5:22 a.m., and that PG&E had inspected some of the transmission lines impacting Lake County on Tuesday night.

A major transmission line, running from Williams through the town of Mendocino, was being patrolled on Wednesday morning. Lake County officials said that, once that line is cleared it will make significant restoration more possible. That line was reported to be a high priority for PG&E.

PG&E said more than 6,300 personnel and 46 helicopters are working on safety patrols and equipment repairs, which take place largely during daylight hours. The company has secured mutual assistance of approximately 1,100 electric workers from other utilities to help with inspections and repairs.

Lake County has 715.1 lines of electrical distribution line and 201 miles of transmission line, according to PG&E.

The company has previously said its goal is to restore powers to areas within 48 hours of the all clear, but that time can vary due to the extent of damage discovered.

Inspection work continues for two shutoff events

PG&E said inspection and restoration work was continuing on Wednesday for customers impacted by the larger public safety power shutoff that began Saturday.

That weekend shutoff impacted 973,000 customer accounts in portions of 38 counties, including all of Lake.

The shutoff event that began on Tuesday impacted 516,000 customer accounts in portions of 22 counties, with Lake County once again included. In the Tuesday event, 400,000 customers from the previous shutoff also were impacted.

From these two most recent shutoff events, approximately 365,000 customers remained out of power while 723,000 customers had been restored as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, PG&E said.

Local officials told Lake County News that only about 7 percent of Lake County’s 37,441 customer accounts had power restored early Tuesday, primarily in the Clearlake area, before power was cut once again.

The ongoing outages caused Sheriff Martin on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency, as Lake County News has reported.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to ratify that emergency proclamation at a special meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday. The board will meet jointly at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport with the city councils of Clearlake and Lakeport.

For the Tuesday shutoff, PG&E said the number of impacted counties decreased from original estimates, as weather conditions changed and as the company was able to sectionalize parts of its grid to allow for greater precision in the shutoffs.

Counties that were removed from the shutoff scope were Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo and Siskiyou, PG&E said.

PG&E said it will continue to operate community resource centers for affected customers, providing restrooms, bottled water, ice, blankets, food, electronic-device charging and air-conditioned seating for up to 100.

Centers will remain open during daylight hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., until power has been restored in those areas.

In Lake County, there are four community resource centers: Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave.; Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport; Upper Lake Unified School District, 725 Old Lucerne Road; and a center reopened on Wednesday morning at Twin Pine Casino & Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.

PG&E had reported that it planned to distribute blankets at centers on Wednesday due to cold conditions.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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