Vulture Causes Blackout At Ione Elementary, Just After PG&E Restored Power From Public Safety Shutoff
IONE (CBS13) — An Amador County school just can't catch a break when it comes to power. Just moments after PG&E turned the lights back on at Ione Elementary, they lost it again. But this time it had nothing to do with a Public Safety Power Shutoff.
The power is now expected to be back on by Friday morning. For a town that thought there would be no Halloween because of the PG&E shutoffs, this is another headache to survive.
A turkey vulture was electrocuted after flying into a PG&E power line on Thursday. James Quattro works for PG&E and said the bird cross phased the wires.
It happened right next to the town's only elementary school. The impact was so strong it blew power to the entire building, causing parts of the school to close and had to relocate students for class.
The timing of the vulture's final flight comes just after PG&E restored power to residents after a public safety shutoff last weekend.
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"Power goes out, it comes back on, a bird flies into a transformer and it's out again," an Ione resident said.
The vulture has now been buried and the power line will soon be fixed. PG&E said to avoid this happening again, they'll put protective fencing on the pole.
Another outage for Ione residents to survive, but with this one, they refuse to blackout their Halloween.
"We've been out of power and weren't sure if kids trick or treating, so everybody just went above and beyond today," Jamie Monge said.
Some school activities were canceled due to the vulture accident. No other buildings or homes were affected by the outage.