Thousands Still Without Power In Foothills, PG&E On The Ground Inspecting Power Lines
NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) — Thousands of people are without power as part of PG&E's latest effort to reduce wildfire risk.
Crews did start restoring power Tuesday afternoon, however, a spokesperson said these safety shutoffs could continue until Wednesday morning, depending on weather conditions.
READ MORE: More PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs Could Be Coming
"Our power went out at 5 last night..yeah..but we have a gas stove," said Ingrid Bauer, who's without power near Grass Valley.
Bauer and her family in Nevada County are making it work.
"We charged our computers yesterday so we could do a little work from home with our cellphones as our hotspot and we're charging phones in the car," she said.
PG&E had crews out in their trucks and out on foot Tuesday. They were checking the power lines looking for any sort of damage, like a tree in the way or a power line that might be broken.
PG&E spokesperson Brandy Merlo said every mile of power line that was shut off needs to be inspected before it's turned back on. That process takes some time.
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"We tell our customers to be prepared for an outage that could be 24-48 hours. Our goal is to get them on as soon as their weather event is over and we are able to inspect our lines," she said.
Kacie Mills and her family are avid campers, so being without power is kind of normal for them.
"The kids kind of find it exciting they got to get their camping headlights out," Mills said.
It wasn't long ago there was a fire just a few hundred yards away from her home near Grass Valley.
"In my opinion, I'd rather have it shut off now and not have a fire coming through," Mills said.
In Nevada County alone, there are 25 two-man crews trying to get everybody's lights back up and going. Power was also shutoff in Yuba and Butte counties Monday.
Whatever happens, Bauer said she and her family are ready.
"We have block ice that we put in our fridge and sensitive stuff we put in our coolers and we lit candles last night and went to sleep early," Bauer said.