PG&E Shutoff Latest For Rohnert Park, SoCo: Some Service Restored

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The number of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers without power in Sonoma County was down from over 66,000 Thursday to 11,460 Friday morning. PG&E officials said late Thursday that the electricity was back on for more than half of 738,000 customers affected by the utility company's Public Safety Power Shutoff this week across 34 counties in Northern and Central California.

As of Friday morning, the number of customers still without power in Rohnert Park was 259, down from 2,030 Thursday. In county areas near Healdsburg, 2,890 still had no power. In Sonoma, 306 customers were still without power; in Boyes Hot Springs, 897; in Cloverdale, 449; in Geyserville, 1,168; in Glen Ellen, 2,311; in Larkfield-Wikiup, 280; in Penngrove, 135; in Rohnert Park, 259; and in Santa Rosa, 7,527.

In Petaluma where nearly 5,000 were without power, all service was restored Thursday.

Santa Rosa police said on Facebook they were informed urban areas of the county would be restored first.

As for school closures, Hidden Valley Elementary School was the only Santa Rosa city school that remained closed Friday due to the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff.

Power to six other district schools had power again Thursday evening. Those schools were Maria Carrillo High School, Rincon Valley Middle School, Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School, Santa Rosa Middle School, Proctor Terrace Elementary School and Lewis Education Center.

Santa Rosa Junior College, which has been closed since the onset of the shutdown early Wednesday morning, said its campuses and sites will reopen for classes and activities Saturday, Oct. 12.

The Shone Farm Fall Festival and the theatre performance of The Good Doctor will go on as planned on Saturday, according to SRJC officials.

"District emergency management staff continue to remain in close contact with Sonoma County emergency services and PG&E and will provide additional updates if needed," SRJC administrators said.

Across all counties affected by the fire-weather related shutdown, PG&E still needed to restore power to about 312,000 customers.

The restoration of service comes after PG&E gave an “all-clear” signal Thursday afternoon indicating the weather had subsided to the point where safety inspections, repair and restoration efforts were able to begin in many of the affected counties, including Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Yolo, Solano and Contra Costa.

Safety patrols and inspections can only take place during daylight hours, so patrols began working again on service restoration at daybreak Friday, according to PG&E.

More than 6,300 on-the-ground field personnel and 44 staged helicopters are working toward full restoration, the company says.

Customers will be restored once safety patrols, inspections and necessary repairs are complete, PG&E said.

The utility noted that as of 10 p.m. Thursday, its crews had identified 11 instances of weather-related damage to its system in the PSPS-impacted areas, and that that company was working to address these repairs.

PG&E noted that customers impacted by the shutoff will not be billed for the period of time they were without power.

PG&E has also paused disconnection and collection activities in the impacted areas, company officials said.

PG&E Community Resource Centers remain open throughout the impacted area to provide water, phone charging stations, air-conditioned seating and restrooms for customers.

Customers can visit pge.com/pspsupdates for more information, PG&E officials said.

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Bay City News Service contributed to this report.