Happens, then i wont complain. This is a special edition of abc7 mornings starting now. Breaking news. Breaking news at 7 00 this morning and lights out and thousands of pg e customers are waking up to discover they are in the dark and more outages are looming. Pg e are implementing these in phases. In the bay area, about 70,000 customers in the dark. And set two beginning at noon which could impact 141,000 more customers in the bay area and talking about primarily in the east bay and the south bay. Welcome to the special edition of abc7 mornings, and right now, there are School Closures because of the Power Outages, and they are scrolling at the bottom of the screen, and you can find them at abc7news. Com. And right now, we want to go to meteorologist mike nicco with the Severe Weather that is prompting the outages. And the worst is not here yet. Good morning, kumasi and reggie. Let me give you an update. The red flag warning, and the watches and the danger, who it is not for santa clara, and the bay shoreline and the coast, but everywhere else in red, it has begun except for the santa cruz mountains, when your high fire danger or the critical fire conditions develop around 5 00 this evening, you go through noon tomorrow, and you will have a much narrower window to worry about the fire than the rest of us who have about, lets see, a 36hour event so about 30 more hours. And the winds will pick up above 30,000 feet, and that is where we are in trouble, the winds that are knocking down the trees and the powerlines could spark the fires and the winds that feed the oxygen into the fire, and then spread it into the embers and transplanting them down wind to create more fires. Right now, manageable, and looking at the winds at 32 in mount diablo, and this is not unusual, but the humidity is lower in the north bay, and 32 , but everybody elses 30 to 39 . And when you step outside, you wonder what is the big deal, but later evening, you will see what the big deal is. And now, over to the south bay bridge, and there is a big deal there because there is trouble with the metering lights. Delays on westbound 880, and the carpool lanes are slower than the regular lanes so that the bay bridge toll plaza, an extra long wait, and also an accident in the upper deck and one in the backup as well. A live shot of the golden gate bridge, and they have changed the lane configuration, but the lights are out in Robin Williams tunnel due to power outage and a new crash reported in the north bay southbound 101 at ignacio, and walnut creek is showing slowing where the kacaldecott tunnel is still open, but signs that it may be closed at noon. The north bay is bearing the brunt of the pg e outages right now, and our reporter Amy Hollyfield is live there in sonoma county. And i have talked to pg e, and they said they have about 32,000 out in napa, and marian is 9,800 people out, and then you are wondering how that adds up to the 160,000 people 86,000 people, was it . That what we were reported 186,000. Yes, 186,000. Oay. Yes. And some of the counties are not in bay area, and solano counties are included and that the reason for the discrepancies. Phase one has begun and phase two is east bay and south bay beginning at noon. And 140,000 people there expected to have the power turned off around noon. So it is really a waiting game for a lot of people in the south bay and the east bay, and Laura Anthony has been out where the Power Outages have been shutdown or impacted the traffic really. So what is going on there right now, laura . Well,hello, kumasi. And you are correct, this is a mayor, major thoroughfare here, and this is highway 29 at the intersection of 221, and what is goingn here as you can see, the Highway Patrol has been standing out near the intersection and manually direct traffic to try to keep things flowing, and try to keep things safe. The power is out here, but the backup battery system is supposed to keep the Traffic Signals working. That did not happen. So the Traffic Signals have been off all morning, and this is quite a dangerous situation earlier, im told when the folks were blasting through, and the freeway speeds of the intersection, and now you have to Highway Patrol out here, and if we can show you across the intersection over to my left there, and the cameras left, you can see some electricians are over there, and they are trying to get the battery backup system working so that the Traffic Signals will start to work again or at least they can get the red flash iing lights. All right. It looks like we are having issues with laura. And just seeing how driving yes, some problem with the video, but it is remarkable the Power Outages of the people trying to get to work, but luckily there and looks like it is moving more smoothly with them in the roadway trying to keep it together. The problem is when the backup is not working, and the backup to the backup is the human being in the middle of the intersection. Now that there is light, it is easier for the people to see that there is traffic coming up, and the intersection is not working. So please be careful out there this morning. We should note that we are waiting for a News Conference to begin in a few minutes in the south bay as they get ready to be a part of this second round of planned shutoffs that pg e promises will happen at noon. Now we will go over to regina at the south bay no, we are going to News Conference. We did not anticipate shutting off any power last night or early this morning, but they do plan on possibly cutting off the power at noon today. Adverse weather is supposed to be at the strongest in the area around 5 00 p. M. Today to tomorrow morning. It is imperative and important for the community to be prepared and make sure that you power all of your Electronic Devices and cell phones and flashlights and batteries, and batterypowered radios on hand, and fill up the gas tang. Understand that the Traffic Signals will be out, and try to avoid driving whenever possible. Also, make sure that you are staying in close contact with friends and family, so that in the event that you need help and assistance that you can get that support. We will have several Community Centers open in the day, and pg e will have a Community Center opened at vie yant stadium open from 8 00 a. M. To 6 00 p. M. For the duration of the event. Residents will have access to water stations and charging stations and air conditions. Other residents arek a cess several city resource center. One at mayfare, one at camden, and one at southside Community Centers that. Ly provide drinking water, and snacks and charging stations for Electronic Devices. These centers are going to be open from 8 00 a. M. Today to 8 00 p. M. The city will continue to provide police and fire services. Please call 911 only if you have an emergency. Not to get information. The police will continue to monitor the situation and ensure that we have and maintain our public safety. The fire will be fully staff and have additional personnel to deploy in an passtation of the high fire dangers because of the winds and we will coordinate with our partners at cal fire. Drinking water, and sewer systems and the Wastewater Treatment are expected to be unaffect at this time. Garbage and recycling collection is expected to continue as usual. With some delays, due to the traffic signal outages. City facilities in unaffected areas will continue to operate as normal. For updates follows city of san jose, and for the county scc underscore oes. And for pg pg follow them at twitter, facebook or next door, or you can visit www. San jose city. Gov or pg e pg e. Com sf. I want to emphasize two point, one is around communication and preparedness. So while we have known that the power shutoffs could be a possibility, our city staff have been working to develop a vulnerability plan, and we have activated the plan. We have also activated our Emergency Operation center, and we are prepared to deal with what comes ahead. I think that the second thing to emphasize is communication. We will be communicating as much as possible with our residents and with the media, and this includes the daily press conferences. The issues with pg es website are well known. We are doing our best to replicate the information, and you can see a map behind me on our website that shows the areas that are projected to be impacted. As i said, we will be doing everything that we can to communicate with our residents and the media. You can also find information on our social media pages and our city website. Next, im going to ask kip harkness, the city deputy manager to come up to provide more operational information. Good morning. Kip harkness, city manager, and as indicated due to the National Weather forecast, pg e has informed us that i will be shutting down the power starting at noon today in the areas affected by the potential wildfire threat. That is primarily the east side of san jose along the edge of the diablo range and well into the neighborhoods and south san jose along the santa cruz mountains, the almadin valley area. We will know more about the specific areas taken out of the power grid as the day goes on, but we expect the shutdowns to begin at noon and continue as long as the weather conditions exist. So as long as the high winds are there, the power is going to be out, and pg e is not going to restore the conditions until the wind is down. At that point, kit tait can tako five days for the customers to be restored. We will be working to speed up the restoration, but it is within their hands. And so we have activated the Emergency Operations center, and im the director of that Emergency Operations center, and we will be able to monitor and scale as the event goes on. The key focus of our work today, and i think that the key ask from the community is really thinking about the most vulnerable. We have to be compassion in the action, and make sure that the seniors and those with medical devices are taken care of. And take the time as you have prepared yourself to reach tout the elderly neighbor across the street and next door to check in on her and make sure she needs assistance and if she needs assistance, hep to reach out to the medical personnel, and then if that is not available, then reach tout 9out to 911, but we some compassion reaction today from the community. We need the Senior Centers and the assistive living facilities and the Skilled Nursing facilities are well prepare and have our support if they need them. The additional piece, and we expect the normal City Services garbage and recycling, and if you are in the affected area, it may take a while to get to the recycling and the garbage cart and no reason to call us, because we will make sure that will happen. If this event is larger, we will scale up the response as according to our plan. So that is all of the information that i have at this time. Im happy to take any questions that you might have as well as the vice mayor and the city manager. Ktvu, and can you give us the thoughts of that we are at this stuation and have to deal with it as it comes and nothing to do with it now, but what are the thoughts of pg e having to do this . And the question is what are our thoughts of being in t situation, and having to do this as a result of the pg e shutdown. It is frustrating on our part to not know what is going on for a large swath of the city and to have their power taken away, and we would like to see pg e to mke the investments in the infrastructure they need to not have to do this with a wind or fire event. We empathize and sympathize with the customers and especially in terms the of traffic and medical devices. How would you describe the communication of the pg e so far . The question is how i would describe the communication with pg e and i would say it is much better. They are grappling with the statewide scale of this event. The calls are increasing and more informative and the individual contacts have gotten better to responding to us. They are working out a lot, and we would still like more rapid access to data, and only recently they have made it easier for us to get access to the exact location and the data that we need. There is a lot to do to improve those, but we have been seeing that they are learnig as they go. Can you repeat the numbers that the people should be calling as well as the web sites. Right. So, if you have a medical emergency, it is 911. If there is a nonemergency crime, it is still 311 in our city. And then in terms of our website it is san jose ca. Gov and a weather alert there on the home page to get the information for pg e, it is and so many people trying to reach them, and the website went down, and if that continues to happen, what should the resident dos . They should assume they are going to be affected in the general area of the map, and if they are not able to find out in that specific area, they should be prepared for the power shutoff and respond to when it happens. The biggest thing we advise if you are likely to be in area, minimize the driving if you can, and we have learned that the almamark School District will be closed to impact families, and so minimize the travel as you take care of the kids and the families. And what schools will be closed . We have been in communication with the School Districts, and almamark is the one that is going to be closed wednesday and thursday, an unified is going to tell us that they replanning to remain open, and each of them are the individual decisions of the School Districts. This is supposed to start at midday, right. Yes. And so what are we bracing for, if you can be more secific . This is to start at noon and a power outage or a blackout, and the main impacts are to the individual households and to the Traffic Signals system, and the biggest impact that we can expect is when people come back home starting in the afternoon and the evening and especially at night, and the big reminder is that you wont see a blinking red, and you will see nothing. That is a fourway stop, and where compassion is also going to be needed to treat your commute back home compassionately, and those are the biggest impacts that we expect to see. And the outage is going to continue through thursday and thursday night until they can begin the restoration activities. As far as the First Responders in the city, how ready are we . They are extremely ready and fire and police as part of the Response Plan are well prepared. And the fire has additional apparatus, and coordinating any response within the community. With the size of our department, we often provide mutual aid, and so in addition to our residents we are ready to support the needs of others. And what about the staffing changes for not only the city, and the police and the Fire Department . The police and the fire have let their members know it is going on and available for callin as needed. And the Fire Department has increased the apparatus available, and the number of personnel on alert. And what about people are worried about the possible looting and breakins. We dont share the operational plans on the police, and they are with us and monitoring the situation, and they will scale up as needed. Yesterday, you did not have anyone available for land control especially on busy areas like story road for example, and has that changed . Yes, we will continue to have the intersections function as fourway stops to take over the Traffic Control requires six to eight people to do it well, and in California Law when you have taken control, you own it. So given the indefinite nature of the response, we want the personnel response for the cr e crimes and other issues and not just control of the intersections. Will you throw somebody out there if there is a need . Yes, if needed, we can take control of it and manage it, but we are leaving them as fourway stops to have a greater amount of personnel to respond. In case people have just tuned in live now, can you emphasize what they can do as far as the safety precautions . Yes, the biggest thing is to prepare yourself and your family and help the neighbors and that is meaning that your phones are completely charge and keeping the refrigerator closed in the vent and so you dont spoil the food if you can and having a battery lighting system and radio, and powered to some other information. Food and water are of course great. Water is going to continue the flow, and so you dont have to worry about that in this instance, and keeping a gas tank full if you can, because many of the gas stations, the pumps will not work if they do not have electricity. And what about the questions and the concerns do you feel that you have seen so far from the residents . Number and the range of the concerns, and probably the same ones that you are hearing, and the main ones are the people with medical devices and vulnerable populations, and making sure that everybody is doing a good job to get the word out, and with the media and people are still learning about this. We are concerned about the traffic, and we will be deploying at the intersections signage to help people remember their quiz from when they were teenagers that it is a fourway stop, and the number of the key intersections affected will have visible signage to remind people it is a fourway stop, and the traffic and the minor medical issues and making people aware and especially the vulnerable populations are the key ones and filling up the gas tanks. And how many people in san jose will be affected . That is unknown until we have a sense of