I used to think power outages we’re mainly a developing country problem, this definitely changes my understanding of the tiers of maturity of countries.
Shocking! (not really)
Shutting power as winds approach hurricane force is very sensible. Here (bay area) this week, the forecast was for winds in the 30mph range with gusts into the 40s. Windy yes, but hardly a storm.
The kicker is the winds never arrived. PG&E shutdown was scheduled for noon Wednesday but there no wind at all. So they postponed it to 8pm. At 8pm, no wind either. No further news from PG&E. At 11pm they cut power. Still no wind (maybe gusting to 2mph). Overnight - no wind. Next morning - no wind.
Nature really called them out here to highlight it was purely a political move. PG&E postponed the shutdown a few times waiting for the wind but when it never arrived they shut power down anyway.
Winds over 60mph on the ridges. https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/KCALOSGA177/graph...
We had 40+mph winds at our home all night. Based on previous experience the power would have gone out anyhow.
In the spring we had a tree take down the power line in front of the house and continue arcing. Thank goodness it was a day after rain and calm wind. On a night like this recent night, the mountain would have been ash.
For those that live in rural, fire-prone areas power outages are often fairly normal and the big danger is burning. If someone hears 4th of July fireworks being set off where I live there's a real risk of a vigilante mob. The tradeoff of power cuts seems reasonable.
There has been reporting that preventive power cuts are generally a good idea, but highly unpopular unless they are really targeted. This is what San Diego Gas & Electric learned: put in equipment to enable more targeted cuts and monitoring. I expect this is where PG&E will need to invest next.
Winds were 30-40 mph in the hills in the north and east bay late Wednesday and early Thursday. Mt Diablo had 70+ mph gusts.
The wind forecasts were never for the low elevations.