PG&E says power shutoffs amid dangerous wind forecast will not interfere with polling

by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News November 5, 2024November 4, 2024

PG&E transmission lines are shown in a file photo. San Francisco is advancing plans to acquire the utility's local electric distribution assets as part of its effort to expand public power. (Ruth Dusseault/Bay City News)

Due to a dry and dangerous wind forecast for Tuesday, PG&E is taking the precaution of shutting off power to avoid the risk of their equipment igniting a wildfire. Only two polling locations could be affected, and the shutoff would not happen until 9:30 p.m. on Election Day, well after the polls close.

The two voting centers that may be affected are Lakeside Elementary School in Los Gatos, and the other is the Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center in Middletown, Lake County.

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Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.

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