THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD •
REGIONAL NEWS
3B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
Power outages, designed to reduce
fire risk, burden California counties
By Olga R. Rodriguez
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — When
California’s largest utility
warned it would cut power to
thousands to prevent its equip-
ment from starting wildfires
during warm, windy weather,
officials in the wealthy wine re-
gion of Sonoma County sprang
into action.
They declared a state of
emergency and called up ad-
ditional first responders who
could direct traffic or take
vulnerable residents to places
with electricity.
Nearly 200 miles north,
officials in rural Butte County
simply posted Pacific Gas &
Electric information online
about which neighborhoods
would be affected and what to
do with perishable food.
Both counties had communi-
ties decimated in destructive
wildfires in recent years, ignited
by power lines. They face the
long-term prospect of frequent
power shutoffs during fire sea-
son as PG&E and other utilities
try to prevent their equipment
from sparking fires like the one
last year that killed 86 people
and nearly destroyed the Butte
County town of Paradise.
More populated, wealthier
counties have adapted their
emergency plans to respond to
the new reality of thousands of
residents losing power for an
undetermined amount of time.
But the preventive outages
are proving to be a burden to
smaller, poorer counties with-
out resources to set up places
for people to cool off or mobilize
staff to deal with emergencies if
outages stretch past two days.
“Most of these counties
haven’t had to deal with
this before.”
— Darby Thomas, California
State Association of Counties
“The outages are to avoid an
emergency and a fire disaster,
but there are no resources
that counties can access to
make sure that people are at
a cooling station or get the
transportation they need to
get there,” said Darby Thomas,
deputy executive director of the
California State Association of
Counties.
California lawmakers this
year set aside $75 million to
prepare local governments for
the outages, but officials have
yet to decide how to distribute
the money.
The outages are new for
PG&E and Southern California
Edison, which together provide
power in 55 of California’s
58 counties. The utilities and
county officials are working to-
gether to figure out their roles,
but a lack of standards has led
to disparate responses.
This week, PG&E shut off
power to more than 48,000
customers in seven counties in
wine country and the Sierra
Nevada foothills as the humid-
ity plunged, temperatures rose
and winds kicked up — a com-
bination that has fueled some
of the most destructive blazes
in California history.
The outages lasted less than
a day, and no major problems
were reported.
In Sonoma County, PG&E
cut power to 700 people in
the Santa Rosa area, where a
massive blaze in October 2017
killed 22 people and destroyed
more than 5,000 homes.
The county started planning
for power outages shortly after
regulators approved them in
May, emergency management
director Chris Godley said.
“Just like we prepare for an
earthquake, or fire season, or
flood season, we also prepared
for the de-energization because
if the power will be out for more
than 48 hours, it’s really an
emergency for the community,”
he said.
The county’s outage plan
calls for opening facilities with
air conditioning, adding more
police patrols to direct traffic
after streetlights go out and
sending workers to check on
those who are sick or immobile.
“Our response philosophy is
to ensure maximum and full
response immediately because
we don’t know the level and
scope of what’s going to hap-
pen,” Godley said.
In Butte County, where
24,000 customers lost power
twice this week, authorities
ensured backup generators
worked, had staffers ready in
case they needed to check on
vulnerable people and shared
PG&E updates on social media.
They planned to rely on two
PG&E cooling centers.
“Our role is to make sure the
information gets out there be-
cause it’s really PG&E’s thing,”
county spokeswoman Miranda
Bowersox said.
Lake County, home to just
60,000 people in the Sierra foot-
hills where wildfires in recent
years killed four people and
burned hundreds of buildings,
R egional B Riefing
Most of Columbia River closed
to salmon, steelhead fishing due
to low numbers of returning fish
emergency officials have spent
$500,000 buying and install-
ing generators that can power
police, fire, water and sewage
services.
It doesn’t have the resources
to do much more than ensure
government buildings are
operating during an outage,
said Dale Carnathan, county
emergency services manager.
As in Butte County, Carna-
than said Lake County’s focus
has been on telling people the
location of outages, advising
them to buy nonperishable food
and generators, and urging
them to charge their phones.
“What people need to under-
stand is that local government
is not going to be able to come
to their rescue,” he said. “We
need them to take responsibil-
ity for their own safety and
security, at least for the short
term, because we’re going to be
in the same boat they are in.”
Though the outages were
brief this week, those longer
than two days can strain
communities, said Thomas of
the counties association. Even
after the weather improves,
there can be delays as utilities
inspect every line before restor-
ing power.
A lot still needs to be done to
help counties prepare, including
drawing up plans to help people
with medical issues or disabili-
ties, she said.
“Most of these counties
haven’t had to deal with this
before,” Thomas said. “We’re
hoping that some of the funds
go toward not only buying gen-
erators but also helping them
plan for these emergencies so
they are able to respond.”
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Most of the
Columbia River will close to all recreational
salmon and steelhead fishing, with the excep-
tion of the Hanford Reach.
The Tri-City Herald reports the closure
went into effect Thursday.
Bill Tweit, special assistant with the Wash-
ington Department of Fish and Wildlife, says
it comes at the tail end of a challenging year
on the Columbia that saw low returns for
many salmon and steelhead runs.
The commercial harvest on the Columbia
River will have to be reduced by fishery man-
agers in Washington and Oregon to account
for the number of upriver bright Chinook
caught during the fall season.
The closure announced this week extends
upstream to Highway 395 in Pasco, excluding
Buoy 10 at the mouth of the Columbia River
for coho retention.
Truck drivers arrested for hauling
industrial hemp through Idaho
sentenced to probation
BOISE (AP) — Three truck drivers who
were originally charged with felonies for
transporting industrial hemp through Idaho
have been placed on unsupervised probation.
The three men, who were charged in two
separate cases, all had the felony charges
reduced to misdemeanors earlier this year.
The Idaho Press reports Ada County Mag-
istrate Judge Michael Oths also gave the
men withheld judgments on Thursday, which
means the convictions won’t show up on their
criminal records.
Denis Palamarchuk was arrested in Janu-
ary when he was stopped while transporting
a shipment of industrial hemp from Oregon
to Colorado on behalf of Big Sky Scientific.
Andrew D’Addario and Erich Eisenhart were
arrested in 2018 after Idaho State Troopers
found that they were driving industrial hemp
plants from Colorado to Oregon.
Though hemp products like lotion and food
items are sold in stores throughout the state,
the plants themselves are illegal because
Idaho’s anti-marijuana laws are very broadly
written.
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AA MEETINGS
BAKER CITY
MONDAYS
Survivor’s Group
12 -1:00 pm
Baker Presbyterian Church
1995 4th St.
(4th & Court, Side Door)
TUESDAYS
K.I.S.S.
(Keep it Simple Sister)
12 - 1:00 pm
1645 Eldon St. Eldon Court
Apts Community Room
WEDNESDAYS
Survivor’s Group
12:05 pm
Baker Presbyterian Church
1995 4th St.
(4th & Court, Side Door)
THURSDAYS
Survivor’s Group
12:05 pm
Baker Presbyterian Church
1995 4th St.
(4th & Court, Side Door)
FRIDAYS
Been There Done That
(Grapevine Meeting)
5:30 -6:30 pm 2970 Walnut
(Corner of “D” & Grove St.)
Grove Apts. Community Rm
AL-ANON
Wed., 4 p.m. ∙ Halfway Library
(Please use back door)
Corner of Church St. /Gover Ln.
Halfway, OR
(541) 540-5326
SATURDAYS
As Bill Sees It Group
10:00 am 2970 Walnut
(Corner of “D” & Grove St.)
Grove Apts. Community Rm
CELEBRATE
RECOVERY
Meets Thursdays at 6:15pm
Calvary Baptist Church
3rd and Broadway
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Been There Done That
5:30 pm 2970 Walnut
(Corner of “D” & Grove St.)
Grove Apts. Community Rm
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Calvary Baptist Church
2130 4th Street
Baker City, OR
Every Thursday
Dinner at 5:30 p.m.
Class starts at 6:15 p.m.
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Enterprise
MONDAYS
Enterprise Group
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113.5 E Main St.
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113.5 E Main St.
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113.5 E Main St.
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7:00 pm
113.5 E Main St.
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113.5 E Main St.
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113.5 E Main St.
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113.5 E Main St.
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City of Joseph
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