[UPDATE 11:20 a.m. Power Back on to Most] All Schools in Southern Humboldt Cancelled Due to Widespread Power Outage

School is out for all of Southern Humboldt Unified School District today because power is expected to be off until this afternoon, school board member Michelle Bushnell told us. She said that she had gotten the information from the school superintendent, Don Boyd.

Power went out last night at 11:09 p.m. to almost all of the Southern Humboldt region. As yet, PG&E has not explained why. Their outage site only indicates that electricity will return at noon today.

A power outage was scheduled for a small number of Southern Humboldt and Mendocino residents this weekend, according to an email PG&E representative Deanna Contreras sent us yesterday evening. “[W]e have a lot of maintenance to do now that PSPS [Public Safety Power Shutoff] is over and we want to get it done before the rainy season.” Contreras wrote, “I did see a list a few days ago and Garberville was on the list for the 19th I believe the 17th through the 19th…”

We had requested a list of outages so we could inform readers but she told us, “But I can’t really send you a list of all the planned outages because there are several here and they are usually impacting a small number of customers.”

She told us she would get back to us today with more information. We’ll update when we know more.

We don’t know if this is part of a scheduled maintenance or if this outage occurred for some other reason at this time. This morning, we’ve requested a call from a PG&E media spokesperson but we’ve no response at this time.

Note: The last four paragraphs were added after the original post went up.

UPDATE 6:34 a.m.: A PG&E spokesperson just called us. He stated, “The cause is under investigation.” He said that crews were “patrolling the lines at this time” but that “it is foggy.” He added, “We should be able to resume helicopter patrols [later].”

UPDATE 6:55 The same PG&E representative called back and confirmed that PG&E does not believe today’s outage is related to the planned maintenance scheduled through this area.  “There is some scheduled maintenance to a line in an area [there,] he told us. But he said, it is “not related to the scheduled work…The scheduled maintenance shouldn’t be impacting customers.”

According to the representative, the outage stretches from a handful out in the Leggett area all the way north through the Weott area. It also stretches to the coast from Petrolia to Whale Gulch. “The most heavily impacted is 1390 [customers] in Garberville, 450 in Miranda, just over 1000 in Redway,” he told us.

“Multiple personnel are in the area working on the issue,” he said.

UPDATE 9:49 a.m.: According to PG&E representative Deanna Contreras,

PG&E’s Humboldt Division has activated its local OEC (operations emergency centers) to respond to the outages currently impacting about 4,300 customers, mostly in Southern Humboldt.  The number is fluctuating, as crews work to restore power safely and as quickly as possible.  There are 1,412 customers with Garberville addresses currently being impacted.  The school district is one of them.  1,026 of those customers have Redway addresses.

Crews are still investigating the cause of the outage but we do know it started just after 11:00 pm last night and this is a transmission-level outage, impacting a couple substations, including the Garberville substation.  (Meaning, a transmission line, the higher-voltage lines that carry power to the substations, is being impacted and causing the outages).

There are two planned outages  today, west of Laytonvile along Branscomb Road, for maintenance. 127 customers should’ve received letters about the work. And another one in Ferndale impacting 8 customers.

You can always call the hotline and the overnight folks will get you an answer right away if you need an answer sooner.

Here are the number of customers who are being impacted by the unplanned outage, per address, but again, the numbers fluctuate as crews work to switch power from line-to-line:

Adlerpoint	167
Blocksburg	87
Bridgeville	32
Ettersburg	4
Eureka	2
Ferndale	8
Fort Seward	3
Garberville	1412
Harris	2
Honeydew	52
Miranda	448
Myers Flat	333
Petrolia	286
Phillipsville	139
Redcrest	10
Redway	1026
Trinidad	22
Weott	41
Whitehorn	223

UPDATE 9:53 a.m.: Contreras says, “PG&E is flying a helicopter to patrol the line from Bridgeville to Garberville. Patrols started as soon as the fog lifted.”

UPDATE 10:26 a.m.: According to the Humboldt County OES, “The Humboldt Alert test scheduled for 10:17 this morning has been canceled due to the unscheduled power outage in southern Humboldt. Drills and notification tests are always subject to cancellation if the message or activity may be confusing during a real event.”

UPDATE 10:56 a.m.: According to Contreras, “[P]ower was restored to mostly everyone in Garberville and Redway by 10:15 am. We’re still investigating the cause. You may continue to see helicopters patrolling the line.”

UPDATE 11:20 a.m.: Power is back on to all but one poor soul in Weott, 8 west of Scotia, and 55 south of Bridgeville, according to the PG&E Outage map.