Lakeport >> The Tuesday meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors began with a long moment of silence, in recognition of life lost and those firefighters injured in the early stages of the fight against the Valley Fire.
Following this, Sheriff Brian Martin took time to address the rush of people trying to get back into their homes.
“There’s a lot of people restless to get home, but please be patient,” Martin stated. “We’re doing everything we can to get people back in their homes. It’s not a race, it’s a marathon.”
He reiterated at several points in his talk that the dangers and health hazards are many, and that first responders fully expect to find more bodies as the clean up begins. The Sheriff’s Office is providing some escort services into burnt out areas, but typically only for people who need to check on pets and livestock. All other concerns, such as medication and clothing, said Martin, can be easily taken care of without going into dangerous areas.
“We have two options: let some in for animals or let no one in, and i don’t want to do that,” Martin said.
He also offered a personal condemnation of those taking advantage of the evacuations, calling those participating in looting “disgustingt,” and stated that his office plans to prosecute anyone who is caught participating in such an act.
Martin made a request for the public to obey the evacuation orders, and don’t get in the way of first responders.
“We’re doing everything we can to get people back in their homes,” he said, “and it can’t happen fast enough for everyone.”
Carol Hutchinson, director of Social Services, offered an update on the status of the shelters and efforts to organize all the donations and resources that have flooded into them.
“The shelters are well stocked, but there are many complexities that we have to plan for,” she said. “A logistics team is working on a master plan to handle donations. There’s more piling up than we are able to handle. Community groups having the same problem. We encourage public to donate to Mendo Lake Credit Union.”
She said that a master plan for donations will be in place in the next day or so. Hutchinson mentioned one possibility going forward is the establishment of storefronts and commissaries, in order to help sort and dispense all the donations in an orderly fashion.
Clear Lake area California Highway Patrol Commander Hector Paredes stated his office has the full support of the main office in Sacramento, and that CHP is “bringing in whatever resources that are necessary” and could bring in as many CHP officers as needed to help keep people safe. He specified there are currently six hard road closures and asked residents to please respect those closures for their own safety and the safety of others. CHP will be aiding the Sheriff’s office wherever there is need.
Brock Falkenburg, superintendent of public schools, stated the schools in Upper Lake, Lakeport and Lucerne were to re-open today, and schools in the Konocti Unified School District, specifically Lower Lake and Clearlake, will open monday. He added he has no idea when they are going to be able to open the Middletown and Cobb schools, though those schools are still standing. “Some classroom space was lost, but the buildings are still standing,” he said.
Several representatives from Pacific Gas & Electric addressed the board, sharing information on the current state of power within the damaged areas and their attack plans going forward.
A large base camp for PG&E workers has been established inside Middletown, with a little over 300 crew on-site to begin surveying and repair efforts. According to Barry Anderson, four major transmission lines were damaged, which would ordinarily supply power to the area. He stated it would take some time to repair those lines, as well as damage to branch lines and substations, but in the meantime PG&E is supplying generators to help get some of the businesses up and running to provide services to whomever is still in the area.
A hybrid vehicle has been deployed to the fairgrounds in Calistoga to provide some electricity to the refugees encamped there, allowing them to charge their cellphones and other small electronic devices. He added they had to make a systematic check of the houses still standing to make sure they were ready to receive power once it is turned back on.
PG&E has also committed to donating $350,000 to the Red Cross for relief efforts within Lake County, he said.
Robert Cupp, incident supervisor, said that PG&E’s first priority is the safety of first responders and public employees helping fight the fire, and that those considerations are at “the forefront” of their decisions. He noted that PG&E has a liaison embedded with Cal Fire 24 hours a day and receives three updates a day from that liaison. He said they are working closely with CAL FIRE to gain access to restricted areas to work on power.
He also added that, if PG&E can offer a solution to a problem, they will try to help. “We are a big company and we can bring a lot of resources to bear — whatever you need, not just utility.”
Incident commander Pony Krueger noted current outages are estimated at 7,200 customers throughout Hidden Valley Lake, Middletown and Cobb.
“The scope of destruction is great in terms of electrical,” said Krueger. “Poles are leveled to the ground, and our restoration strategy is safety foremost.”
The procedure for restoration, he said, begins on sections of lines. Teams analyze each individual section, then a vegetation management team looks at the condition of trees and cleans up anything that may be problematic. Finally electrical teams come in and repair lines. Their goal for Tuesday was to fully restore power to the Middletown substation and into Hidden Valley Lake.
A stretch goal included Cobb, but realistically, he added, that would be achieved some time today.
According to Supervisor Rob Brown, there are already a lot of new utility poles at the PG&E base camp, ready to go up. He said he felt the new poles are symbolic that the county is already rebuilding.
