California utility giant PG&E cut the power Wednesday to its Northern California customers in more than 20 counties in an effort to prevent wildfires during a spate of dry autumn weather with forecast winds of 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph.
PG&E is in the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in response to billions of dollars in fire claims against the corporation. Courts recently ruled it was utility’s decades-long practice of deferring maintenance and subsequent power-line failures that caused some of California’s recent massive deadly fires, such as the wine region fires in 2017 and the Camp Fire 2018. This follows six felony convictions for the San Bruno gas line disaster.
Last week’s blackouts affected 800,000 homes and an estimated 3 million individuals and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area, the wine country north of San Francisco, the agricultural Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills East of Sacramento, reports state.
What was not reported are those who were affected peripherally by the blackouts.
Perhaps a million or more California residents who were not located within, but rather adjacent to, PG&E blackout zones were nonetheless affected. Providers that rely on electricity to deliver services both inside and outside of PG&E coverage areas — such as cable TV and internet providers, cell phone services and water utility agencies — had service disruptions, in some cases lasting a couple of days.
Schools cancelled classes, businesses closed and non-essentially service were not available. Gas stations were closed as well as banks, and ATM machines were not in service. In some communities, traffic lights were out or malfunctioning, which created lengthy traffic delays and backups. One local morning news correspondent reported that it took his crew three hours to travel three exits on a foothill highway.
PG&E planned the rolling blackouts two weeks prior to the shutdown and warned its customers via text message a few days in advance to prepare for possible outages lasting up to five days; however, not everyone affected got such a message. PG&E’s website crashed as as frustrated and angry customers tried to obtain information.
The actual duration of the targeted outages varied. PG&E restored power to most areas within 48 hours, reports indicate, but some had to wait four to five days for line repairs. Typically, these delays occur in more rural areas, where residents have limited access to resources.
During the blackout, there were 75 mph gusts of wind in the Central Valley, local news stations reported, but along the coast and in the Sierra Nevada foothills, winds ranged from 0 mph to 4 mph, which outraged PG&E customers who spent days without power.
In the foothill town of Oroville, someone egged the local PG&E office and a PG&E service vehicle was hit by a bullet. As you may recall, Oroville was location of the dam disaster in 2017, which was due in part to deferred maintenance.
The utility said that during the power reboot, it identified 50 line locations in need of repair. This begs a question: Wasn’t it possible to spot these locations prior to the outage?
Ultimately, the northern California blackouts could be labeled “effective” given no lives were lost due to power-line failures — as far as we know. But there were fires — about 48 of them in the greater Sacramento area between Wednesday and Friday. They ranged from small house fires to a wild fire that consumed thousands of acres, according to local news reports.
PG&E essentially announced last week that customers better just get used to the outages as “the new normal.”
The economic impacts of these blackouts on the state, counties, municipalities, businesses and individuals have yet to be calculated. Analysts estimate this latest round of blackouts may have cost billions in terms of lost taxes revenues, lost sales and inventory, lost wages and income, overtime for first responders, and theft. (The Bay Area has the worst theft rates in the nation.)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said “we,” meaning state taxpayers, are going to financially backstop PG&E, which is a publicly traded corporation, for the cost of inspecting and repairing power lines.
“It is not the state’s responsibility,” he said, “but we will take responsibility because the moment requires that.”
PG&E gave a record number of political donations during the 2018 election cycle. Newsom was one of the few candidates who did not either decline or refund its donation.
Third Wold California
Power outages are characteristic of Third World countries, as is crumbling infrastructure, medieval rodent-borne diseases like typhus, corrupt elites, extreme and vast poverty, a one-party government, tribalism, gangs, lack of security, poor social services and oppressive taxes — all of which California can arguabley claim more than any other state in the nation.
Read “Rat-Infested California’s Squalor and Disease Outbreaks”
Further exacerbating matters, California’s captured political machine has made it a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants, who are offered free health care and social welfare upon arrival. Meanwhile, California residents pay the highest basket of taxes in the nation, meaning the collective of income tax, sales tax, fuel tax, utility taxes, internet tax, property taxes, etc., etc., etc.
Teeing up an October Surprise
On Wednesday, a day before the power was cut to the Bay Area, there was a 3.3 earthquake in the blackout zone. More quake swarms are expected. In 2017, a researcher at Berkeley announced the discovery of a correlation between the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountains and quake activity along the San Andreas Fault. Last winter’s snow pack was 188 percent of normal, and enthusiasts were still skiing in July.
What would the consequences be of a significant earthquake during one of these massive blackouts? Would they be able to get power restored? How might it affect emergency services?
I live PG&E adjacent. In the early morning hours Wednesday, my cable and internet services were disrupted as the utility powered down neighboring communities. (Services didn’t return to normal for about two days.) Wednesday afternoon, I noticed my entire neighborhood suddenly grow dark as black clouds of smoke drifted in from the West.
I spent the next couple hours or so gazing out the window for signs of flames while trying to access the internet from my cell phone to find out more information, and without success. And then it suddenly dawned on me. There are tens of thousands of people in Sierra Nevada mountains communities like Auburn that could be in serious danger, if all of their services are shut off and there’s a fire.
On the other side of Lake Folsom in El Dorado County — where a large number of communities spent a couple days without power as a wildfire burned to the South — the local water district sent out emails warning customers that water services may be interrupted due to the power outage. Yep, it seems they use electric pumps to deliver water to some areas. Farms and ranches also rely on electric pumps to deliver water to crops and animals.
So communities Southwest of Lake Tahoe had no lights, possibly no water, no internet, no TV, spotty cell phone coverage and a wildfire raging nearby. How exciting!
It was probably equally exciting in the gang lands of Oakland, where power was shut off there for a couple days. Oakland is one one of the most dangerous cities in the country, and the executives at PG&E in their infinite wisdom agreed to pull the power plug on it. Wow.
PG&E is a Rothschild owned company, just as is the Weather Channel. There are very bizarre things happening in California, and none of them good. Many feel Cali is the test bed and jumping off point for the full blown implementation of Agenda 21/2030, and all the evil that that entails. From what I see I must agree. For more on the insanity I recommend this Deborah Tavaris video:
I believe these fires- like the ones in 2017- have been intentionally created! These power-downs were because they knew the fires were coming. When on e analyzes the video and photos, one can see that these fires are electromagnetic in nature. As in 2017, many of the residents will NOT be allowed back into their homes or be allowed to rebuild as they continue with their agenda. Ms. Tavares should be listened to as well!
Ed is exactly correct. The fires have nothing to do with PG&E. They are caused by an orbiting beam weapon which was launched from Vandenberg AFB on the 28th of August 2013. I watched the launch from my home in Avila Beach, not quite comprehending the significance of a well publicized daylight launch. Most launches at Vandenberg are at night, without any notice given.
Almost immediately, mysterious fires began plaguing China. This was noted at the time, particularly on Zero Hedge. No connection was made with the recent launch at Vandenberg
. There were two very suspicious large fires in northern California in 2015. These were NOT attributed to powerlines until 2019.
Canada then experienced the horrific Fort McMurray fire in 2016.
Northern California was attacked again in 2017. The town of Santa Rosa was the particular target. The Walmart in Santa Rosa, a fully sprinklered building, was vaporized on the morning of October 9th. The Santa Rosa city government had previously discussed the fate of the Walmart site on the 26th of July: this in spite of the fact that the lease was current and the store was open for business.
Three money-losing fast food franchises were also vaporized, as was another property the city government wanted to see gone, the Journey’s End mobile home park. When I use the word ‘vaporized’- c’est le mot juste, the exact word. They weren’t burned they were VAPORIZED.
What the Santa Rosa city government hadn’t counted on when they made their devil’s bargain with the Air Force for a little urban renewal was that the Air Force wasn’t going to stop with the unwanted businesses but was going to turn the beam loose on a large part of Santa Rosa. The Coffey Park neighborhood was vaporized, as was most of Fountain Grove. Thousands of houses burned while hundreds of fire engines sat idle in the bay area just 45 minutes to the south.
Watch the videos of the fire posted on Youtube at the time by courageous reporter Martin Espinosa, and tell me when you see a fire engine anywhere in this disaster. NOBODY FOUGHT THE FIRES!
This was followed by the destruction of Butte county, California, November of 2018. 50,000 people were burned out of their homes by the Air Force.
All this was attributed to ‘wildfires’, yet California had beaten the wildfire problem. Between 2008 and 2015 there were no serious wildfires.
What changed beginning in 2015? Not the weather, not residential building patterns, not firefighting resources or techniques. What changed was the launch of the Burning Machine. Suddenly, 75% of the homes allegedly burned in ‘wildfires’ in the last 90 years occurred in the four-year period 2015-2018. Bullshit.
That Butte county fire burned the town of Paradise into extinction. These guys know how to pick their targets.
They know they are destined for hell, and would love to do to the real Paradise what the Romans did to Carthage. They never will, so they get off by picking off “significant” targets. Anti-human and Anti-Christ, they cannot win, but will cause total mayhem before they’re packed off to burn forever.
I imagine this is what you are referring to. There is no doubt it could be used as a “beam weapon”.
“Sometime before 2016, Solaren Corp. plans to launch the world’s first orbiting solar farm. Unfurled in space, the panels would bask in near-constant sunshine and provide a steady flow of electricity day and night.
PGE asked the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday for permission to buy 200 megawatts of electricity from Solaren’s orbiting power plant when and if it’s built. That’s enough electricity for 150,000 homes.”
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2009/04/pge-signs-space-based-solar-power.html
Not Rothschild-owned, as best I can tell, but definitely influenced. Roger Kimmel, vice chairman of investment banking firm Rothschild Inc, was on the board. He resigned in January. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pg-e-director/rothschild-vice-chairman-resigns-from-pge-board-idUSKCN1P919X
PG&E is a publicly traded company on the NYSE. Controlling interest is held by mutual funds (Vanguard majority position at 7%) and hedge funds, such as Blackrock (2%).
The Rothschilds aren’t the only vultures in California. They’re just one of the better-known names. Highly recommend viewing the documentary “Water & Power: A California Heist” (2017).
PG&E was hyper-financialized in the ’90s — probably earlier. The company model shifted from an energy focus to an investor focus and shareholder profits. Recommend a viewing of “Eron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.”
Take a drive around the so-called “rural” and older suburban areas of the state and you’ll see power infrastructure from the ’50s that doesn’t look like it has been serviced since the ’90s. And though PG&E knows the above-ground power grid is not the right choice for California, it continues to install them en mass. Why? Because it’s cheaper in the short run.
From what I’ve read, the only underground power projects have been entirely developer-funded. PG&E has a multi-million dollar annual budget to bury power lines in sensitive areas, and they’re moving on it at a snail’s pace. 30 miles a year. Factor 107,000 miles of existing power lines, and we’re looking at 3,500 years to complete. What a joke.
PG&E’s financialization certainly makes it a target for attack. It’s a POWER company — meaning not just electricity — one of the biggest in the United States. As such, it’s also a much-desired tool for economic leverage and political influence.
I’m not discounting the idea that the fires were deliberately set. Perhaps some black box hedge fund wanted a bigger pop from a larded-up short position. We’ll never know.
The film “Chinatown” pretty well described the economic power and political corruption mechanisms in California nearly 100 years ago. Compared to what’s going on now … it makes “Chinatown” look like “Romper Room.”
Well, one needs to consider that Rothschilds are not owmers in your face amymore. They had long switched to proxies like JP Morgan, Warburg, Rockefeller etc. Later it was the pseudo-geniuses of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, as well as yes – entities investing via the Vanguards and BlackRocks of the world. The hedge funds (Distressed / Restructuring) are mow heavily involved in the debt, which grants them cheap access to thw physical assets.
You have to check the videos of the fires, which show that the fires selectively burmed the houses (amd cars) but not the surrounding trees and bushes. So the fires were not caused by natural fire or PG&E infrastructure but some kind of directed energy / chemtrails etc.
Visiting in Chico in September, I met a woman whose house burned down in the Paradise fire. If memory serves me correctly, she was one of 4,000 remaining, of the original 25,000 homeowner fire victims, who was planning to stay and rebuild. The homeowners were going to have to pay about $20,000 for toxic cleanup of their house site plus approximately $25,000 for building permits. Most people moved away, many out of state. I think most were white, with low to moderate incomes, and many of retirement age. I don’t know this has been reported in any media and I would guess not.
Steve Outtrim made a video on his site, https://burners.me/ called CryptoBeast #17–Fire, Water, Trains, Space Lasers: California Burning. He has a theory about a California water relocation plan. He had lots of interesting info whether he is correct in his theory or not.
I can confirm what Deborah Tavares said about geoengineering (chemtrails) going on in the CA Bay Area the day before the threatened power outages were to take place.
There is also speculation about a false flag attack in Seattle:
https://thefullertoninformer.com/seattle-false-flag-11-3-19/
Maybe California is a “distraction”.
well documented on our pages: Predictive Programming About Seattle Mega-ritual is Off the Charts
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/09/predictive-programming-about-seattle-megaritual-is-off-the-charts/
well lookie here whats trending on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iPH-br_eJQ
“Dew’D!!! Confirming Proof Of Lasers Used In Paradise Fires and Beyond”
https://153news.net/watch_video.php?v=5DO8K5UROAWY
A 4.5 magnitude earthquake on Monday around 10:30 p.m. in Pleasant Hill area, less than 30 miles from San Francisco, according to the US Geological Survey.
Great stuff Torchy!
P.S.: I checked city-data.com for Paradise, CA. A casual reader might come away with the impression that Paradise was still a going concern. Interspersed within the statistics are links to articles (“Much of Paradise was destroyed in the Camp Fire.” sacbee.com) that could be overlooked because all of the old data is still up. Its population was previously 85.9% White, 3.2% mixed, 7.2% Hispanic, 1.5% American Indian, and 1.3% Asian. Mean resident age 51.7 years, above CA average; mean estimated income $48,402, below CA average. Just for the record.
PG&E could trigger intentional blackouts for 10 years, CEO warns. It could take a decade to improve PG&E system enough to avoid power shutoffs. From San Jose Mercury News