Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 21 November 2019
Blackouts hit Northern California again during fire danger

Continued from Front

The blackout is the latest in
a series of massive outages
by PG&E, including one last
month that plunged nearly
2.5 million people into dark-
ness and outraged officials
and customers as overkill.
Officials accused the com-
pany of using the blackouts
as a crutch after years of
failing to update its infra-
structure to withstand fire
weather. PG&E equipment
has caused some of Cali-
fornia's most destructive
wildfires in recent years.
PG&E CEO Andy Vesey ac-
knowledged the outages
have been "terribly disrup-
tive" and said the compa-
ny is taking steps to avoid
them in the future but that
for now, "we won't roll the Grass Valley's Dionicio Torres looks at the gas can selection before taking the last 5-gallon gas can on the shelves at B&C Ace
dice on public safety." Home & Garden Center, in Grass Valley, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, in preparation of Wednesday's planned public safety power
Meanwhile, California shutdown.
regulators are demanding Associated Press
answers from wireless, inter- statewide failed at one hour to see if they need- of service, he said. More saying the changing out-
net and landline providers point in late October, but ed to check in, said John than 450,000 people had age forecasts made it dif-
whose equipment failed the numbers were much Kennedy of the Rural Coun- communications cut off, ficult to prepare. For ex-
during the earlier outages, higher in northern counties, ty Representatives of Cali- the group said. ample, AT&T deployed
leaving hundreds of thou- such as Marin, which had fornia. Fire departments Exasperated members of 60 generators to the San
sands of people without 57% of its towers out, and lost contact with fire trucks, the California Public Utilities Francisco Bay Area only to
a way to get emergency Sonoma, with 27% out. and some had to rely on Commission reminded rep- learn that the suburbs were
alerts or make 911 calls. Some public safety work- radios because download resentatives of Sprint, AT&T, no longer affected, said
About 3% of cell towers ers had to drive for an speeds were so slow or out Verizon and other compa- Jeff Luong, an AT&T vice
nies that customers pay for president. "It's impossible to
reliable service. react to that type of situa-
"The customers need to tion," he said.
know where there's cover- Lake County Supervisor
age and where there's not, Moke Simon said AT&T's
and the local responders network went down right
need to know," Commis- away during an outage in
sioner Martha Guzman late October, risking sewer
Aceves said. and alarm systems. There
"Next fire season cannot, was no backup, he said.
cannot look like this one," "That really put us in a dire-
commission President straits situation," he said.
Marybel Batjer said. Batjer told the companies
Consumer advocates she was surprised by their
have urged the commis- lack of preparation given
sion to establish backup California's long history of
power requirements and wildfires.
make the companies pro- "It's sort of stunning that you
vide detailed information go, 'Well, we just learned a
about outage locations. lot in the last three weeks,'"
State Sen. Steve Glazer and she said.
Assemblywoman Rebecca The companies have told
Bauer-Kahan proposed the state they communi-
legislation Wednesday that cated with authorities, but
would require cellphone the outages were unprec-
companies to provide at edented. They said they're
least 72 hours of backup improving backup power
power at cell towers. but that those sources
Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T might not be possible in
officials said they would some places and genera-
disclose outage informa- tors aren't always safe.
tion immediately but didn't Comcast said its network
commit to 72 hours of "fundamentally relies on
backup power. commercial power to
They also criticized PG&E, operate."q