California is Burning (Again)

[LightRanger]

How many babies will be born in NorCal in 40 weeks?!

Pge customers are already paying for hazard mitigation. Pge now “considers” undergrounding lines, and, in some places, has been doing it.

I’ve heard theory from informed sources that this is all a political strategy and the outage in the urban areas will be short. I’m hedging that my source is wrong.

Caldecott tunnel in the east bay is expected to loose power and be closed.

All good points. Check this out. Wild.
https://twitter.com/CityofBerkeley/s...882198018?s=19

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[glademaster]

Seems to me that no matter how you slice it, a wind-driven firestorm in a densely populated area will be far worse than the inconvenience of a PLANNED, ANNOUNCED, WIDELY PUBLICIZED power outage. I guess I don't understand where the outrage/opposition to this is coming from, as it seems staggeringly short sighted.

[SumJongGuy]

Reason 230947209470 why property and houses are so much lower priced out in the sticks.

[Ottime]

Seems to me that no matter how you slice it, a wind-driven firestorm in a densely populated area will be far worse than the inconvenience of a PLANNED, ANNOUNCED, WIDELY PUBLICIZED power outage. I guess I don't understand where the outrage/opposition to this is coming from, as it seems staggeringly short sighted.

Americans are selfish stupid fucks across the board. Bay Area might even average worse. We’ve created a culture that feels it should never be inconvenienced. I mean, how will the elite charge their Teslas and feel above the common man destroying the world in their ‘95 Civic.

[LightRanger]

Eh. I don't think that's fair. Sure, that are some people like that, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that this could be handled way better. Further, for example, places like San Ramon and west of 580 in Oakland are not exactly the places where one would even be close to prepared for a weeklong outage. Some places have more right to be dismayed than others. And then there's PG&E's own lack of preparedness in having sufficient server capacity to handle the traffic to their site, which was down most of yesterday, leaving people in the dark (pun intended) about whether their power would be turned off. And then there's PG&E's pathetic "emergency resource center" setup...
https://twitter.com/bedwardstiek/sta...702446593?s=19

People also might be more forgiving of PG&E if it were not a convicted felon found in violation of it's probation by a federal judge earlier this year. A felon that paid executives millions as they falsified documents.

In other news, I'm kicking myself for not buying Generac stock awhile ago...
NYSE:GNRC https://g.co/kgs/ceds1p

Our power went out between midnight and 1am, incidentally. Curious to see how long it takes to get back on after the winds are gone.

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[bodywhomper]

My power went out at 4am in the foothills. For the past several days, including now, NWS has been forecasting calm winds until tonight, then gusts in the mid-20mph range, which corresponds to the start of the red flag warning by me. Pge shut off power 16hrs before the red flag warning starts in my area.

Pge did not establish their circuits mindful of outages of circuits due to wildfire hazards from wind events. In the east bay, there are areas in the flats that include low income neighborhoods, industrial areas, etc. that are fully built out that have lost power because their circuit extends into the WUI at the top of skyline.

[LegoSkier]

Good map from the SR Press Democrat: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/multim...ap-pge-outages

From the map it looks like the shut off power to all of Eureka? WTF? And even Samoa Island. That's a fucking sand spit in Humbodlt Bay.

Edit: I guess the main transmission line for all of Humboldt county comes from Whiskeytown which is shut down. Sucks for them.

[lepistoir]

Americans are selfish stupid fucks across the board. Bay Area might even average worse. We’ve created a culture that feels it should never be inconvenienced. I mean, how will the elite charge their Teslas and feel above the common man destroying the world in their ‘95 Civic.

It's really the leaf blowers that are dooming us all

Damn guys, you really should be focusing on leaf blowers. LEAF BLOWERS - so many pollutants. https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/msprog/offroa...article_inline



And they are loud as fuck. You can hear those little bastards from a couple miles away. F those things and your clean yard too!

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[LightRanger]

In other news, the Central and Northern Sierra is slowly turning into the San Gabriels.
https://www.sierrasun.com/news/extre...to-shrublands/

[SumJongGuy]

This is all because you peasants don't do a good enough job of raking the forests..

[PB]

Good map from the SR Press Democrat: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/multim...ap-pge-outages

From the map it looks like the shut off power to all of Eureka? WTF? And even Samoa Island. That's a fucking sand spit in Humbodlt Bay.

Edit: I guess the main transmission line for all of Humboldt county comes from Whiskeytown which is shut down. Sucks for them.

This would definitely be annoying: not being in any significant fire danger but losing power because of grid design.
I guess I'm not too surprised at the mess even when they're trying to anticipate pro-actively, given the complete cluster-fuck during and after the emergency. Disaster planning's best chance of working is when you actually have recent, repeated, similar disaster experience .... and there's no guarantees even then.

So what are the potential long-term solutions for electric-grid caused fires? Burying creates it's own issues, and I'm not even sure you can do that with the the big regional high voltage lines ......?
Are we still just looking at somehow separating human dwellings from the forest interface, and/or building non-combustable houses/caves?

[bodywhomper]

Pge is stating they shut power in my area 16hrs ahead of the wind event for the same reason as Samoa, trans lines getting high winds in the valley.

My understanding is that lines can be put underground but it takes a lot of money, engineering, and tech.

[teledad]

We went down overnight as well, from the map it looks like the whole 80 corridor is down west of the Summit. Certainly isn't due to local conditions since winds are mild and the ground is still wet from the snows last week.

I've got friends in Sonoma who dodged a bullet in 2017 (fire came onto their property but missed the house), and others in Chico and Redding, so I get it. But it's frustrating to be without power 100 miles from the problem area.

Tahoe basin folks (including Truckee) should be happy they get their power from Nevada (at least this time around).

[hutash]

I am all for powering down lines during certain conditions (had SCE did the 12/4/17 I would still have a house), but I have to wonder how much of these outages are just punishment to pressure PUC to ease off PGE and damages they are liable for. I suspect we will be seeing the same thing in SCE service area soon.

[neufox47]

There's definitely going to be a continued push by PG&E lobbyists to change the liability standard to something more lenient than strict liability/inverse condemnation.

Spot on. They probably thought the fire season was going to be a lot worse too so now they are over reacting because this maybe their only chance for a widespread shutdown in 2019. Make people so annoyed by the shutdowns that they are fine with exempting then from liability. I will say that the strict liability statute is mostly a means for the general public to subsidize wealthy homeowners, homeowners without insurance, and insurance companies. Definitely keeps a lot of attorneys in business.

[LightRanger]

So get this. The power goes back on 45 minutes ago in my neighborhood and a couple nearby according to my spouse and various people on Nextdoor.

Post on Nextdoor five minutes ago...
"Sooo, I'm on the phone with PGE. (My power is back on) Asking if it'sGoing to go out again because of all the talk of 48 hours +. PGE Customer Service Said "We SHOULDN’T Be back on”. Our Area hasn't Been cleared or Updated. She's looking for a manager Now....Manager says “We are not Cleared and Power could possibly go out again”. SMH (shaking my head) Sad. Come on PGE, get it together."

Massive facepalm.

I mean, hey cool, power! But... sigh.

[Stu Gotz]

This is all because you peasants don't do a good enough job of raking the forests..

😆. That was a good laugh.

[MTT]

Americans are selfish stupid fucks across the board. Bay Area might even average worse. We’ve created a culture that feels it should never be inconvenienced. I mean, how will the elite charge their Teslas and feel above the common man destroying the world in their ‘95 Civic.

I thought it was obvious that you were all being punished for this
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/13/76047...dise-and-elsew

[BGnight]

I am all for powering down lines during certain conditions (had SCE did the 12/4/17 I would still have a house), but I have to wonder how much of these outages are just punishment to pressure PUC to ease off PGE and damages they are liable for. I suspect we will be seeing the same thing in SCE service area soon.

I'm sure this is 100% of the reason they're cutting power. PG&E should never have been liable for the Paradise fire. If dumb fucks want to build communities in perfect fire traps they should accept the fact that shit happens. Don't bite the hand that powers you. Same analogy can apply to Scot Schmidt stating that people that sue ski resorts should be shot.

This is PG&E's middle finger to them being bankrupted by lawsuits and nothing else.

[glademaster]

I'm sure this is 100% of the reason they're cutting power. PG&E should never have been liable for the Paradise fire. If dumb fucks want to build communities in perfect fire traps they should accept the fact that shit happens. Don't bite the hand that powers you. Same analogy can apply to Scot Schmidt stating that people that sue ski resorts should be shot.

That analogy fails on so many levels it isn't funny. You're a special kind of stupid if you really feel that way.

[hercule33]

We can’t forget that this is a result of the climate change deniers. I am and never was not a fan of PGE and I don’t think that they are doing a good job with this situation. Hell, I never liked the job they were doing for the last 20 years but let’s not kid ourselves that climate change deniers enable shitty companies like PGE to get away with doing nothing because 70% of Americans are not willing to pay $10 a month to cool the planet (at least the majority of Americans now acknowledge climate change is a problem). PGE won’t be the last shitty company to do nothing about climate change and then get “blindsided.”

Our military and intel communities (both hotbeds of liberalism and environmental activism) are making plans for the impact of climate change. We should demand that private companies do too. End of rant.

[BGnight]

70% of Americans are not willing to pay $10 a month to cool the planet

So if those 70% chipped in $10 the planet would get colder?! Do explain!!

[BGnight]

That analogy fails on so many levels it isn't funny. You're a special kind of stupid if you really feel that way.

No it doesn't. Don't build houses in flood plains and wildfire terrain. Pretty simple. If you do, accept the consequences. If that fire was started by a cigarette (which could have more easily been the case) they'd try to sue Phillip Morris.

[supermodel159]

We can’t forget that this is a result of the climate change deniers.

Thank you for the laugh.

[hercule33]

So if those 70% chipped in $10 the planet would get colder?! Do explain!!

I don’t know if you are being facetious but I will explain anyway. The politics of climate change is clear and understood by both climate activists and climate change deniers: Americans are not willing to sacrifice to combat climate change. That sacrifice could be financial ($10/month) or behavioral (carpooling or riding a bike to work). Note that some behavioral changes would actually save people money and help climate change but people are still not willing.

The irony of course is that the cost of climate change will far exceed $10/month for the average American. Just look at all the tax dollars that are spent by the military and intel communities on planning for climate change and all the tax dollars that are spent fighting fires or rebuilding after hurricanes. What do you think will happen to your insurance premiums with climate change? And who will pay for that generator or solar panels for when your power goes out? And whose tax dollars will the military use when there is conflict due to the change in natural resources that resulted from climate change?