Published 19:57 IST, October 11th 2019
California governor Gavin Newsom calls power cut 'unacceptable'
California Governor Gavin Newsom has termed electricity shutdown by PG&E to prevent wildfires as 'unacceptable' even as dry winds pose danger to the state
- World News
- 3 min read
California Governor Gavin Newsom as per reports has termed electricity shutdown by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to prevent wildfires as 'unacceptable' even as gale-force friends and dry winds pose the danger of fire to northern California. Experts estimate economic damage worth $2 Billion. Meanwhile, politicians have slammed PG&E alleging 'greed' has caused this.
Gavin Newsom: 'Unacceptable in 21st Century'
Reports say PG&E has imposed a huge power shutdown which left more than 730,000 homes and workplaces in northern California without power for the second straight day of power cuts. PG&E stated in a release that on late October 10, power was restored to half of those who lost the power. Officials stated that around 312,000 consumers remained without power as of 10 pm. Recent wildfires caused damage to power cables as flames burnt thorough dry lands to populated areas.
Gavin Newsom, who is the Governor of California has reportedly said that he did not blame the power company to shut down electricity as a safety measure but described outage as too wide and said it was a result of mismanagement by the company. He said that he is seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st Century should experience and that whatever happened is unacceptable and it happened because of neglect. PG&E had filed for bankruptcy in January 2019 due to potential civil liabilities running in excess of $30 billion for major wildfires and other equipment.
Politicians slam PG&E
As power outages affected many people, Democrats have pinned the blame on the power company-
Experts: Damage can cost $2.5 billion
An expert from Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment has estimated the economic damage due to power outage can reach $2.5 billion hitting small businesses the hardest as they lacked back-up generators. A man who lost one restaurant in 2017 due to wildfire said that this (Power outage) is a preventive medicine and that sometimes it's better not to take it. He said what those fires caused were very real for people in the community.
(Inputs from agencies)
Updated 20:36 IST, October 11th 2019
