Another way of looking at this headline would be that for the majority of Palo Alto the power is staying on.

Looking at media coverage of this there has been so much misinformation and not enough real information. Accurate information is important when we have been given a couple of days warning.

With the frenzy of lines at gas pumps, people buying enough supplies to survive a siege and the fears of 7 days without power, people are undoubtedly concerned. But keeping those who will not be affected by this from adding to the frenzy will prevent even more madness at grocery stores, hardware stores and gas pumps.

Lots of sympathy for those who will be out of power. But making things worse by adding those who will not be affected to line up unnecessarily for gas, making the lines unnecessarily longer, adds to the problem rather than detracts.

Overkill helps nobody.

It would be nice if we knew exactly where power will be lost . West of 280 is a big area. Length of outage would also be useful. Hard to believe 5 days.

It will be "interesting" if all traffic lights are down in the area of CA-85, I-280, and Foothill Expressway on/off-ramps and vicinity, as shown on the map. That looks like something that could be addressed with a relatively inexpensive local fix.

Isn't PG&E bankrupt? They can't afford to maintain the power lines any more and pushing the costs on to rate payers is much cheaper for them. If businesses or homeowners suffer financial losses due to the lengthy power failure, good luck filing a claim against a bankrupt company.

There is a legible version of this map at Web Link

What an absolute joke. Wind speed at the coast and on the ridges is barely 10mph and not expected to rise for at least the next day. Even the 10-day forecast has minimal winds in those areas. How about waiting until there's a need to turn off power instead of feigning concern with an unnecessary blackout?

This is clearly just a ploy by PG&E to wrangle a better position for itself in post-fire negotiations.

Hi,
I just can't believe that the CPUC wasn't aware of PG&E's problems far in advance of this shutdown.
It makes you wonder if they're not a part of the problem?
We were fortunate not to be affected by this shutdown but my heart goes out to those who have. It was so uncalled for if PG&E had been servicing their lines & performing regular maintenance. Who oversees this?
So, do we still have to pay PG&E during this shutdown?
Extremely frustrated

This is political extortion plain and simple on behalf of PG&E. How did we get here? Brought to you by the California legislature that has been run by the Democrat party for almost 3 decades now. Keep voting Democrat California. You get the government (and infrastructure) you deserve.

> Brought to you by the California legislature that has been run by the Democrat party for almost 3 decades now.

Perhaps, but it seems more related to what happened when Schwarzenegger meet with Enron before deciding to run during the recall, then signed a bunch of bills that favored Enron, etc..

btw: what happened to the opposition to the California Democratic Party since they threw Arnold out of office? The reflubicans haven't held a single statewide office since -almsot 2 decades?

Why is that?

Arnold and Ken Lay of Enron - "You get the government (and infrastructure) you deserve."

Disgusting. Time to recall the Governor. What miserable leadership.

@zags: "Time to recall the Governor."

What happened the last time there was a recall? It led to complete control of every statewide office by the Democratic Party, thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It's a power outage, not a natural disaster. Be prepared, but don't panic. It's overkill.

"Disgusting. Time to recall the Governor. What miserable leadership."

Yeah, let's have the republicans be in control. Ask the Kurds and Syrians how this is working out for them.

[Post removed.]

I think the blame here goes to PG&E who puts profits ahead of safety and maintaining it's infrastructure.

Independent of the frustratingly tragic state of PG&E's electrical grid safety (which is an immense safety and economic problem), finding accurate locally-relevant information is a critical necessity to staying safe, engaged and productive.

I would like to recognize the Palo Alto Weekly messenger here: after searching for information with PG&E, City of Palo Alto Utilities, and PAUSD among other news outlets, this article has the best information for Palo Alto I have found for understanding how the shutdowns are and possibly will affect us here in Palo Alto.

Thank you, Palo Alto Weekly! Please stay on top of the story.

We still have power in PAH...

The PGE map shows the power is off in Portola valley
Weather.com says the current wind there is 5 mph ?
Did it get up to 40or 60mph last night to justify the outage or us this just a scam?

Posted by Anon, a resident of Evergreen Park

>> The PGE map shows the power is off in Portola valley
>> Weather.com says the current wind there is 5 mph ?

The wind at low elevations will mostly be moderate. That doesn't mean wind isn't very high where transmissions lines are. The power grid that powers a local area where there is no wind may partly be in a high wind area. IOH, simplistically, the power you are using got to you through -potentially- high wind areas.

>> Did it get up to 40or 60mph last night to justify the outage or us this just a scam?

I saw on news reports this morning that it was really howling on, e.g., Mt. Diablo and Mt. St. Helena in the north bay. Clearly not all areas can easily be isolated. For example, the area east of downtown San Jose may be shut down, not because they expect high winds in that location, but, because power to that area can't be isolated easily from areas with high winds.

Now that we all know, it would appear that the PG&E grid could be re-engineered to be more resilient in the face of high winds. Easy to say, but, that means money, and, criticism from people who think it is unnecessary and wasteful spending.

Thank you, Palo Alto Weekly, for telling us what you know when you know it.