Amid a three-day power outage, last Thursday night in downtown Bolinas was dark and sleepy—save the hum of a handful of generators and the glow of candles from the windows at Eleven, the only restaurant with its doors open.
Residents of Bolinas, Stinson Beach and Muir Beach scrambled over the hill last week to buy generators, headlamps and camp stoves following the last-minute notice that parts of Marin were on the list for the statewide planned outage by the Pacific Gas and Electric company.
Neighboring coastal towns to the north, Inverness and Point Reyes Station, remained powered.
Spokeswoman Megan McFarland explained that the company shut off electricity across the counties based on any one of several weather indicators: a red flag warning, humidity at or below 20 percent, forecasted winds above 25 miles per hour or gusts in excess of 45 miles per hour, and the presence of dry fuel on the ground.
“Regarding why some cities [in Marin] were deenergized and not others, the electric system [relies] on power lines working together to provide electricity across cities, counties and regions,” she wrote to the Light. For security reasons, she said, “we don’t get into what cities or communities are connected to which lines.”
The chief of the Bolinas Volunteer Fire Department, George Krakauer, said a primary transmission line for the village runs over the Bolinas Ridge, making it vulnerable to the strong winds forecast at higher elevations.
Data from the National Weather Service showed that wind gusts peaked on the ridge during the period of the outage on Thursday morning at around 24 miles per hour. The highest temperature on the ridge during the event was 70 degrees later that day, with 10 percent humidity. Although predicted to be higher, the highest gust recorded in Marin across the three days occurred on Wolfback Ridge in Sausalito, at 40 miles per hour, according to PG&E.
Bret McTigue, a spokesman for Marin County Fire, emphasized that the conditions were “the greatest threat we have had in a long time.” Humidity in the teens, he said, “is at critical levels in this county,” and a fire started during winds up to 30 miles per hour is one “we can’t stop.” “Normally red flag conditions have been above 1,000 feet, but here we saw winds and relative humidity consistent in the lower valley just like you saw with the Tubbs Fire,” Mr. McTigue said. “You get a roadside start on Sir Francis Drake [Boulevard] or Lucas Valley Road, and that fire is going to run very fast.”
Mr. McTigue pointed to a fire that sparked in Mill Valley at the top of Fernwood Canyon, likely due to fireworks, last Tuesday night right before the weather conditions worsened. If the fire had started uphill of the road as opposed to downhill, “it would have likely run to the top of Mount Tam and been more like 200 acres versus two acres.”
The shut-off in Bolinas—which lasted from around midnight on Tuesday until midday Friday—went fairly smoothly for emergency responders, according to Mr. Krakauer. The firehouse and the attached Coastal Health Alliance clinic rely on a generator. The county’s office of emergency services gave charging strips to the fire department, addressing what Mr. Krakauer said was the most pressing concern from residents: cell phone charge.
“I think it was, more than anything, a good drill for the community to prepare for disasters,” he said. “If anything comes of it, I think it’s a growing awareness for the need to prepare. This is not the last time this will happen, whether in a winter storm or another shut-off, and it could be for a lot longer.”
He urged residents who require electricity for medical support to contact the department to be added to the at-risk list; fire staff and volunteers checked on those residents during the blackout and provided assistance.
While the Stinson Beach and Bolinas libraries were closed, many businesses kept their doors open during the day, even without lights. The Bolinas-Stinson Union School District closed both campuses Wednesday through Friday.
Jennifer Blackman, general manager of the Bolinas Community Public Utility District, said both the sewage and water systems have backup generators that kick in automatically in an outage. Considering the utility could run them indefinitely given enough fuel—and that the systems are primarily fed by gravity—BCPUD did not issue a notice to conserve water, as did the Marin Municipal Water District. (That district also has back-up generators, but advised customers to conserve water to ease demand and to ensure reserves for firefighters if needed.)
In a report released by PG&E following the outage, the company rehashed the event. “It was an unprecedented event in PG&E’s history, and to our knowledge, the largest single such shutoff event ever conducted in our industry,” spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said in a statement. “We understand the hardship and disruption this caused for our customers and the general public, but given the devastating effect of wildfire on our customers and communities, we believe we made the right decision.”
Sixteen of the 35 counties affected in the shut-off saw winds above 50 miles per hour—meeting the company’s wind trigger threshold—excluding Marin, but including in Sonoma and Napa Counties.
Before turning the power back on, PG&E dispatched 44 helicopters to do aerial inspections; along with ground crews, they covered nearly 25,000 miles of distribution lines and 2,500 miles of transmission lines. They found around 100 instances of damage, including trees into lines and downed power lines. In her release, Ms. Contreras said, “It is possible that any one of these instances could have been a potential source of ignition had a P.S.P.S. not been initiated.”
Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday urged PG&E to provide affected customers an automatic credit or rebate of $100 per residential customer, and $250 per small business as compensation.