Fire danger goes into effect at 5 00 a. M. Tomorrow to 5 00 p. M. Thursday. Very low relative humidity and under those conditions fires can start and spread quickly. Here is our wind advisory in effect from 6 00 a. M. To 3 00 p. M. Thursday. Winds will gust in those Higher Elevations and stronger up to about 55 Miles Per Hour. Theres a possibility of down in h trees and power lines. Tomorrow evening well have strong winds gusting from 14 to 40 Miles Per Hour and the gusts become widespread by 11 00 p. M. Tomorrow and going into thursday, wind gusts up to 45 Miles Per Hour. The relative humidity is going to remain low tomorrow afternoon. Well see relative humidity only in the Single Digits about 7 to 8 to 14 to 15 and it will remain low through thursday morning into thursday evening before the humidity and wind begin to moderate and get back to normal levels on friday. Ill have a look at the sevenday forecast in a few minutes. State and local officials are demanding answers, why is pg e taking this drastic step of turning off power to nearly 1 million california customers. Should it do this . We have been digging into that today. The reaction today was swift and strong, pg e had billions of dollars to maintain the power lines and make the area safe, but pg e has failed says officials. This is the type of interruption to lives that should not happen. Criticism of pg es decision to cut power started this morning with the mayor. She says the utility should have done more to maintain their power lines and avoid such a huge forced outage. We are going to do it because we agree it is in the interest of the safety of people, but we have got to do better. Reporter the state senator has been battling pg e since the gas cloeexplosion and he calls a true tragedy. We should not have to have 800,000 peoples power turned off for possibly five days. Look at the destruction of business operations. Look at the devastation of Financial Resources and those who are medically tied to their homes and need that. Reporter it echos accusations by people who have filed lawsuits saying the utility misspent money to repair power lines. Its easy to say were going to turn the power off. Theres no liability after that rather than providing that safe system and that theyve been paid to do. Reporter late today pg e defended the Power Outages and says its taking steps to improve performance. This includes things like strengthening and hardening our system. It includes weather stations throughout our service area. It includes whether cameras and many steps that were taking. Reporter advocates tell the iteam the forced outages says pg e doesnt have confidence in their own work. We have spent billions of dollars. We have had huge rate increases so pg e can fix their system. People are upset its not done yet. Reporter on top of that jerry hill tells me pg e should not be doing a broad forced outa outage, they could use microgrids to target grids where shutoffs are needed. Thank you, dan. Just a few hours ago we spoke with the governor. He shares californians outrage with pg e. They should be outraged by this and i recognize tha as we are and we are going to do everything to get them out of bankruptcy and get them to fix their system. Abc 7 news is live from oakland with more on what the governor had to say. Reporter approximately 35,000 customers will be affected here. The governor said this shouldnt be a surprise. Pg e reported nearly 800,000 people wont have power after midnight. The governor believes that number is not realistic. I think it potentially could be more than that. We just dont know. It changes. It changed overnight. It changes hour by hour. Reporter an emergency of severe fire danger this map shows every single area in the shutoff area with the exception of san francisco. The governor says that he is working with the Utility Company to prevent what is about to happen. We got pg e out of bankruptcy so they can upgrade their system and have the ability to turn on and turn off their grid im discharging my phone chargers and i have an extra cell phone at home and im going to use that as our connection to the world and see if we can find out whats going on and prepare for that. Reporter someone else who will be effected is rose, the business she manages will see thousands of dollars in losses. All this milk and fruit will go bad. This chocolate is going to melt. Reporter the red flag warning goes into Effect Tomorrow until thursday and the shutoff could last up to five days. Theres a possibility they could restore power sooner. I believe thats how quickly they can inspect lines. Reporter those emergency numbers to call are 911 for medical emergencies. 311 for Service Requests and 211 for social services. To prevent looting, all officers are expected to work. Ma as news of the outage came out today, we pushed news through the app. Tomorrow uc berkeley will close because the transformer is in the outage zone. Napa valley unified says schools will close tomorrow and thursday. You can see the list of closures running at the bottom of the screen and a list of Resource Centers where you can go to get water and charge your phone. Abc 7 is live at a school. Reporter a lot of people were caught off guard by the closures. At this school more than 1,000 students will be impacted. Word of the closures came down a few hours ago. Many parents are scrambling trying to figure out a Coverage Plan for their kids for wednesday and thursday. It is going to be stressful, but fortunately my address is not affected. We were affected by the shutoff so at home well be fine, its just the school thing thats the problem. Because i really dont like him to miss school. I like him to be there every single day. Reporter are you glad to not be at school for the next couple of days . Its okay. Im 75 glad im gone, but 25 upset that im leaving. Reporter for parents who need a place to drop off their kids tomorrow and thursday, the boys and girls club here will be open from 8 00 to 6 00 for children ages 6 and up. There will be programming and supervision. Students at this middle school will actually be out of school for the rest of the week. They already had a scheduled Teacher Inservice date set for friday. Abc 7 news. Thank you. Bart riders should not have to worry about getting around. Trains will continue to operate thanks to the Power Distribution system. We get traction power from pg e at 12 switching station thstations that we have and were able to shift the power around so if we lose power to one of those switching stations, we can draw power from somewhere else in our grid. If any bart station does lose power, there are generators. The escalators may stop working, but the lights should be on. No power means no stop lights. Drivers should treat a dark intersection like a fourway stop. We continue our live coverage from the south bay. David. Reporter a lot of the south bay residents are going to have a lot on their mind tomorrow if the power goes out, not just people concerned about what happens at home or the office, but also on the streets when theyre commuting or running errands. People are urged not to drive, but if they must they should be responsible for their own safety and the safety of others. Over 30,000 vehicles a day use story road. The concern is if the lights go out. This is inside the fire safety outage zone. San jose has no plans to direct traffic here, but they may close lanes. The citys Transportation Department estimates there are 98 other intersections that could lose their signals. Its a lot of intersection so we want to put people in charge of their safety at this point and ask them to be cautious and contract and mind the rules. Reporter Traffic Signals are a concern for the bus and light rail agency. Outages could disrupt the schedules for buses. We expect if there are Power Outages that affect traffic lights, thats going to affect bus service. Were hoping people will be patient. They can Call Customer Service to get some other alternative routes. Reporter it doesnt believe the Light Rail Service will be impacted. The buses are recharged by diesel engines. The bus yards are located outside the designated pg e fire safety power outage area. As for Traffic Signals losing power, when power is restored the signals are linked by network and software will reprogram them. One other city service that might be impacted, that is garbage. Were live in san jose. Cal tran is preparing to close the call the cop tunnel because of a power outage as soon as this evening. The agency is working with pg e to provide emergency power to keep the tunnel open if possible. Its not certain right now if it will close, but well keep tabs on that. Along highway 1, the tunnel near pacifica will close tomorrow at noon and will not reopen until thursday afternoon. Lets go to vic lee for how people are preparing. Reporter people in this county are coping and preparing by stocking up on critical supplies and county residents should know that this restaurant, the pasta moon restaurant in half moon bay, its parking lot tomorrow starting at 8 00 will become pg es Community Resource center. You can get water. You can charge your electronics here as well. Pg e contractors work near highway 92 trimming trees too close to power lines. Pg e appeared to have a new fire break around its jefferson substation. Emerald hills was within the fire zone, a community with narrow winding roads and strong winds sweep down in the afternoons. We get the laptops charged up and the phones charged. Reporter jeff has an interesting dilemma. Hes got an electric car. Ive got 78 or 80 miles available to me in this car. Reporter the Hardware Store was the most popular spot in half moon bay, some of the shelves empty by noon. Generators will selling like hot cakes. This woman just bought one for 1,000. I think im planning on deducting it from my next pg e bill. Reporter kim was stocking up on essentials. She owns the art store in half moon bay. So much business lost. You have to wonder if its just so pg e doesnt get sued again. Reporter the most noticeable impact may be here at the tunnel at devils slide on highway 1, a heavily travelled artery. The power shutdown will force cal tran to close the tunnel from noon tomorrow to thursday afternoon. The reason cal tran will close that tunnel tomorrow, safety reasons. There are jet fans inside that tunnel which clears smoke and chemicals from accidents and spills and those fans will not be working tomorrow because of pg es action. Abc 7 news. Thank you. The front page of our website is blanketed in information that you need to know. See maps of the potential power outage zones and find out what to do and where to go if your home is in the dark. Its a on our website, abc 7 news. Com. The purpose of turning off the power is to reduce the risk that Electrical Equipment will spark fires. It is something weve seen happen several times in the last few years. As you know with deadly consequences. Were live at a ceremony as the north bay marks two years since fires destroyed homes and lives. Hear from people in the north bay how theyre preparing for this fire season and the Power Outages they may face starting tonight. Aaddiction. How juuline hooked kids and ignited an Public Health crisis. Other news outlets report juul took 12. 8 billion from big tobacco. Markets ecigarettes with kid friendly flavors and uses nicotine to addict them. 5 million kids use ecigarettes. Juul is following big tobaccos playbook. And now, juul is pushing prop c to overturn ecigarette protections. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. Happening now, the north bay is marking two years since Deadly Wildfires began. It would take 22 days to contain the fires which destroyed 8,900 structures and killing 44 people. Abc 7 news joins us live from santa rosa. Reporter good evening. Were at old Courthouse Square where a short time ago a but so llemn event occurred. Lets begin with a video. The ringing of bells, those are the first of 44 chimes honoring the 44 people who lost their lives in the fire, including 24 in sonoma county. The timing could not be more unique with pg e saying it will cut power tomorrow due to high winds like the ones that started this two years ago. Among those who evacuated, the similarities between now and then did not escape him. The timing. Its eerie. Reporter do you believe this power outage is necessary . I think its better than doing nothing. Reporter as we come back live, thats a question we asked a lot of people tonight exhib, including the fire chief. He told us the shutdowns are going to be difficult, but with the winds we see coming, he thinks pg e is playing it safe and in this case doing the right thing. Live in old Courthouse Square in santa rosa, abc 7 news. Thanks. Better safe than sorry. Thank you. We want to find out more about the weather situation and the dry conditions. Very critical the next few hours the next day or so. Spencer is tracking it for us. You dont need heat to have high fire danger. The wind and dry conditions will do it. Here is a look at conditions compared to yesterday at this time. 13 degrees cooler here in san francisco. Nine degrees cooler in oakland. Despite the cooldown, we have increased fire risks. This is the view of the setting sun. 64 in san francisco. Oakland 67. San jose at 59. Were getting clearer skies than we had an hour ago at the golden gate. The view looking down on san francisco, these are our forecast features. We have this dry windy pattern developing overnight. High fire danger the next two days with a milder weather pattern developing at the end of the week. Another look at our red flag warning for high fire danger for the bay area from 5 00 tomorrow morning to 5 tomorrow low relative humidity and fires can start and spread easily under these conditions. Wind advisory will be in effect for the north and east bay hills from 6 00 a. M. Tomorrow to 3 00 p. M. Thursday. Winds will be gusting 45 to 55 miles her hoper hour and the wil be quite strong in the valleys. Overnight lows under clear windy conditions mainly in the upper 40s to low 50s. Here is the sevenday forecast. It will start to get warmer as the fire danger decreases. Over the next two days, we have the high fire danger and then friday and saturday it starts to warm up into the mid 80s inland. Relative humidity will be back in a normal range by then. Well get a cooldown starting on sunday. Next couple of days though we need to be careful. All right. Health care facilities are preparing for the Public Safety power shutoff. A can lao tlook at the south why one medical office is blow a kiss, into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss, into the sun all we need is somebody to lean on in the south bay healtre facilities a making sure they are prepared for this shut off. Some providers are voicing their concerns. We have the story. Reporter tonight as the south bay braces for pg es Public Safety power shutoff, officials at Valley Medical Center in san jose say theyre prepared for whats to come. Were going to be opening up our Hospital Command Center if with he need we need to. Well make sure we have capacity as needed for our patients throughout the county. Reporter some medical professionals are frustrated by a lack of timely communication from pg e. Satellite health care provides kidney dialysis to more than 4,500 patients in the bay. This is a very vulnerable part of our community. Reporter theyve been calling on pg e to keep their power on, but havent had much luck. We want to make sure that patients get dialysis, but this is not sustainable over a long period of time. Reporter Mothers Milk Bank is a Nonprofit Organization providing donor human milk to infants across california. Its important to keep the milk frozen. Reporter theyre ready to go with a generator in case the power fails. Someone loses their milk, they could reach out to their hospitals and physicians that they work with and request milk through a prescription. Once we receive those prescriptions reporter san jose state Emergency Preparedness expert says pharmacies and stores could be exacted by a power outage. People need to think about whether they have a week supply of the essential medications that they take every day. Reporter in san jose, abc 7 news. While the pg e power shut off comes at a sensitive time, we saw the ceremony of the 2017 wildfires. We look at what was lost and what has been rebuilt and how people are still struggling. The power might go out, but you can store it up ahead of doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Breaking news, pg e Power Outages that are set to start at midnig midnight, 800,000 customers could be affected including people in all bay area counties except for san francisco. Pg e is turning off equipment that could spark wildfires. This all comes on the second anniversary of the deadly north bay fires. They erupted on the night of october 8th, all of santa rosa is completely on fire. So scarey. Today fire victims are looking back remembering what was, what happened and now what is. Reporter here is stuff from more than 1,750 tons of foundations, sidewalks, driveways and patios, ground down on the way to recycling. If you spread it out, debris from the north bay fires would have covere 314 square miles. Now 70 of it is gone. This is much of what remains. Its the physical residue. For fire victims dealing with residue takes many forms. Im getting too old for this. You never know whats going to happen in your life. I think the two years after is worse than the actual event