Frustration grows as Santa Cruz County prepares for power shut off
Santa Cruz County residents warned of the possible power shut off by PG&E, waited Wednesday morning for their power to shut off at its originally estimated time of 12 p.m.
Based on weather patterns, PG&E delayed the shut off in the county to 8 p.m., leading to lots of confusion.
“And the PG&E website can’t handle it can’t handle it and no one’s getting any good information,” Ben Lomond resident Lori Sullivan said.
Sullivan and many others trekked to the grocery store to stock up on water and ice.
“I came to get ice, so I can fill up my fridge. Not knowing how long and not knowing exactly when because you can’t buy ice too far in advance,” Sullivan said.
Most large grocery stores have back up generators. Raley’s tells KION they brought in extra staff to their Santa Cruz county stores and are bringing in refrigeration trucks to preserve perishables.
More than a third of Santa Cruz county is expected to be affected by the shut off.
“it’s causing quite a commotion. No one really knows what’s going on,” Santa Cruz County resident Mark Howard said.
Some restaurants are nervously awaiting the shut off like Sushi Garden in Scotts Valley.
“Once we lose power the restaurant will shut down. Unfortunately we don’t have a generator so the moment we lose power we’re at the mercy of PG&E,” a waitress at the restaurant said.
At a sushi joint, the fresh fish is only sustainable without refrigeration for maybe 24 hours.
“The profit loss on that is going to be astronomical. Pretty much our entire inventory could be lost depending on how long the outage occurs.”
Some shops like ACE hardware have been cleaned to the bone. Wednesday, the Scotts Valley store was sold out of emergency items like lanterns and propane. The store says they didn’t have enough heads up to stock up on the emergency items.
The community resource center in Aptos remained open today. It will open again tomorrow at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. PG&E will keep the center for water, charging stations and bathrooms open as long as the shut off continues. It is located at Twin Lakes Church near Cabrillo College.
KION 2019
