PACIFIC GROVE — Some locals, still reeling from the weekend’s previous deluge, were wary of local and regional handling of prolonged power outages as another storm began to roll over northern California and the central coast on Wednesday. was continuing.
However, according to the city and corresponding officials, the delay in restoring power was a result of unsafe conditions and high demands, rather than confusion and oversight by relevant authorities, and local residents frustrated by the unusually long outage. expressed concern.
In Pacific Grove, some residents lost power for more than 55 hours after a New Year’s Eve storm hit Monterey County. Some community members around the city’s beach tracts, especially those near the ocean, reported power outages Saturday afternoon through Monday night. The several-day outage sparked complaints, with some alleging that it was a skirmish between the city and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company that slowed the restoration of power.
Officials from both parties said they had no disputes with each other while dealing with the effects of the storm over the weekend.
“We were in touch with the city,” said PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado.
“We work closely with PG&E. That’s our process,” says Pacific Grove City Manager Ben Harvey. “There was no confusion between PG&E and the city about who was responsible for cleaning.”
At the heart of Pacific Grove’s prolonged blackout and community discontent were large trees that fell on various power lines on Alder Street near George Washington Park. The incident caused a power outage for residents in the surrounding area from Saturday afternoon. PG&E initially promised power would be restored soon, but the outage lasted more than two days, and tree-removal work didn’t begin until Monday.
The apparent delay to residents drew criticism. Community members questioned protocols for dealing with fallen trees and power lines during the storm.
But when asked who is responsible for clearing debris during bad weather, officials from both Pacific Grove and PG&E gave the same answer. When the weather just knocks down trees without affecting power, the city’s public works department intervenes.
“It takes special training and knowledge to safely remove a tree entangled in a downed power line,” Harvey said, adding that how power lines are affected in an accident could cause residents to worry about the city in part. He added that they may be seeing clearing vegetation in areas of not someone else.
Tostard, on the other hand, pointed out that frequent rainstorms made the situation dangerous and difficult to deal with in a timely manner. are more easily toppled, increasing the risk of breaking power lines, but also making infrastructure repairs and installations more difficult. Worse, the roads can become blocked as trees become more susceptible to the weather. According to Tostado, this causes her PG&E access issues.
Access issues can also cause misunderstandings between PG&E and residents as to when power will be restored. Other customer complaints that surfaced during the New Year’s Eve storm related to his PG&E notice of estimated time to recovery, which was sometimes changed and expanded in updated messages.
“This is what happens when you work during a very dynamic event,” says Tostado. “Sometimes there are staff needed to restore power, but when crews get there, danger arises as they try to do their job. Now trees fall, landslides and floods occur. There is an access issue because of the time and that is when we need to issue a new update to our customers, which is very frustrating but due to dynamic storm conditions we are facing issues We are doing our best to provide information in as timely a manner as possible.”
