PG&E issues 'all clear' for weather conditions, utility works to restore outages
Pacific Gas and Electric utility power lines.
SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric announced on Thursday that their meteorologists had issued a weather “all clear” for all the counties affected by the power shutoff a day earlier.
The wind conditions had improved so much, that the "all clear" was issued at 2 a.m., meaning PG&E crews can now start to inspect their equipment and begin restoring power to customers.
As of about dawn on Thursday, about 10,000 customers had their power restored and 40,000 still needed to have their lights turned back on.
PG&E expected all customers to be restored by Thursday night or sooner, pending damages found on the system.
The utility took an unprecedented step this year, turning off its power to large swaths of customers, as they feared high winds would topple their equipment and start more fire. 2 Investigates found that the utility may be linked to as many as 2,000 fires in the last five years, 30 percent of which involved equipment failure.
Wednesday's shutoff marked the fifth PG&E blackout since Oct. 5 and the ninth in 2019, according to the utility.