10/25/2019 9:00PM: According to the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services, the number of people potentially impacted in Monterey County has increased to 9,000.
The agency says the shutoff is anticipated to begin around 10pm Saturday and will likely last until Monday. Potentially affected communities include Aromas, Royal Oaks, Gabilan Acres/San Juan Grade Road/ Old Stage Rd to the San Benito County border, Gabilan Foothills off of Old Stage Rd and Zabala Rd, Chualar, Gonzales, Soledad and Greenfield.
In Santa Cruz County, the shutoff may impact about 45,000 customers in Aptos, Ben Lomond, Brookdale, Capitola, Corralitos, Felton, Freedom, La Selva Beach, Mount Hermon, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Soquel. Phased rollouts of the shutoff are expected to begin around 5pm.
Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District will be closed Monday due to the anticipated outage.
In San Benito County, it’s anticipated about 1,300 people in Aromas, Hollister and San Juan Bautista may be impacted.
One way people can check if they will be affected is by entering their address on PG&E’s website.
These power shutoffs could last several days. The outage times and locations will vary. PG&E officials say it's important for people who've received a notification about a potential shutoff tobegin preparing now.
PG&E created "Public Safety Power Shutoffs" to try and eliminate the risk of a spark from their equipment during periods of increased fire danger. Dry, hot and windy weather is expected to impact the Monterey Bay area Saturday evening through midday Monday.
In total, roughly 850,000 PG&E customers across Northern and Central California may be impacted by the anticipated weekend power shutoff.
