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This story is no longer being updated. Follow our most recent coverage here: What we know Saturday about the PG&E outages: 28k Shasta County customers could lose power

Update, 1 p.m. Saturday

PG&E officials announced plans to turn off power to as many as 28,000 Shasta County residents at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"This wind event is forecast to be the most serious weather situation that Northern and Central California has experienced in recent memory," PG&E's senior vice president of Electric Operations Michael Lewis said. "We would only" make "this decision — to help reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to our customers and communities."

Statewide, shutoffs are scheduled throughout the day in phases:

2 p.m. shutoffs affect customers in Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, Sierra, Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama and Yuba counties.

4 p.m. shutoffs affect customers in Lake, Marin, South Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

5 p.m. shutoffs affect customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Stanislaus, Alpine, Calaveras, Mariposa, Tuolumne, Humboldt, North Mendocino and Trinity counties.

10 a.m. Sunday shutoffs affect customers in Kern County.

Shutoffs could affect as many as 940,000 PG&E customers in California:

Shasta County outage could start this afternoon; some schools announce Monday closings

Update, 9:15 a.m. Saturday

PG&E has yet to announce if it will turn off power on Saturday afternoon. If it does, outages in Shasta County would most likely start around 3 p.m., the power company said Friday evening at a press conference. Should it decide to go ahead with the outage, as many as 28,000 Shasta County residents could lose power.

No outages were reported in Shasta County Saturday morning.

Should power go out, Shasta County residents with medical conditions and who need assistance can call the Disability Action Center in Redding at 242-8550.

Possible power outages on Monday motivated some school officials to close schools or release students early. Thus far, the following schools and districts reported changes to their Monday schedules:

North Cow Creek School will be open in the morning, but will end classes and release students at noon.

Millville School will remain open Monday on a minimum day schedule, releasing students at 1 p.m.

Evergreen Elementary School, Middle School and Preschool will be closed.

Bend School will be closed.

Cascade Union Elementary schools will be closed.

Anderson Union High School will be closed.

Pacheco Union School district schools will be closed.

Happy Valley Union School District schools begin classes at 10 a.m. and release students at 2:10 p.m.

French Gulch-Whiskeytown School will be closed.

Risk of fire ignition and high potential for rapid spread of fire continues through the weekend and into Monday. A Red Flag Warning, the second this week, went into effect Friday and continues until 11 a.m. Monday.

There’s also a High Wind Warning in effect until 11 p.m. on Sunday. Expect winds around 25-35 mph with gusts up to 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. Daytime humidity remains very low: About 8-15%.

Over 28,000 Shasta County residents could lose power in PG&E planned outage

Update, 6:30 p.m.

PG&E still hasn't decided whether it will turn off power again tomorrow, but if it does, the outages in Shasta County likely would start around 3 p.m., the utility said Friday evening at a press conference.

Potentially historic winds are forecasted for the area, and at the same time, PG&E said humidity will be as low as 5 percent — more akin to what's typically seen in deserts.

"This is a serious situation in front of us," said Scott Strenfel, a meteorologist with the company. "We absolutely must be prepared."

Andy Vesey, the company's CEO, also touched on preparedness at Friday's press conference, saying the "shock of these events" shows how important it is people plan ahead for outages.

Vesey said he's been in the industry over 40 years and worked all over the world, but he's never seen conditions like those forecasted for the weekend in California.

"This is an extraordinary change we're living through," Vesey said. "These places we all love have, effectively, become tinderboxes. Any spark from any source can lead to catastrophic results. We do not want to be one of those sources. That's why public safety power shutoffs have become so frequent. It's also why it's becoming so widespread and affecting so many people throughout the state."

Update, 6:10 p.m.

The Shasta Community Health Center's Anderson clinic on East Street would use generators and laptop computers to continue its regular medical and dental services during the potential outages, officials said.

"We encourage our patients in Anderson who are scheduled on Monday to plan on coming in to our Anderson facility," CEO Dean Germano said.

Still, Germano said the shutoffs continue to be "a significant inconvenience and expense."

"We continue to be concerned about patients who rely on medical devices in their home who have to scramble to find alternatives. We encourage PG&E to find ways to improve their infrastructure and perhaps be more targeted in their use of power reductions as a safety strategy rather than a broad brush stroke of turning off all power to wide-spread areas," Germano said.

Update, 5:15 p.m.

Over 28,000 Shasta County Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers could lose power in precautionary shutoffs over the weekend, and the outages would be more widespread and likely last longer than the ones the county saw earlier this month.

Hot and gusty weather — potentially the strongest California wind event in decades — is expected to start late Saturday and last until midday Monday, the utility said. Potential outages to offset fire risk from the extreme conditions would affect some 850,000 customers across 36 California counties, PG&E said.

As of press time Friday, the utility hadn't made a final decision about the latest possible shutoffs, but officials said they anticipated another outage that could be longer than the one the county had at the beginning of the month. That's because of the latest weather forecast.

Locally, the outages could affect 28,460 residents in Anderson, Bella Vista, Big Bend, Cottonwood, French Gulch, Igo, Lakehead, Millville, Montgomery Creek, Oak Run, Ono, Palo Cedro, Platina, Round Mountain, Shingletown, Whiskeytown and Whitmore, PG&E said. The planned outage that happened earlier in October was slightly smaller, with over 27,000 county customers affected. In Tehama County, up to 19,238 customers could be affected in the latest outage, according to a press release from the company.

Combined in both counties, over 2,800 of those potentially affected customers have urgent medical needs that require electricity.

PG&E's forecasting technology indicates the weather event spurring the latest potential outages could be the most powerful in California in decades, with widespread dry northeast winds between 45 and 60 mph and peak gusts of 60 to 70 mph in higher elevations, the utility said Friday. That's why the weekend outage could last longer than others.

PG&E officials noted at a press conference Thursday evening that strong winds this week have dried out vegetation even more, and the utility looks at both wind speeds and dryness when deciding to shut off power.

While the utility said its goal is to keep planned outages under 48 hours each, PG&E Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said he "hopes it wouldn't go beyond" that this weekend.

Still, the current forecast would warrant power going out sometime Saturday and possibly staying out past Sunday, PG&E said.

The extreme conditions triggered the closure of Cascade Union Elementary schools Monday, as well as those in the Anderson Union High School and Pacheco Union School districts.

Other schools were taking a different approach to the potential outages.

Happy Valley Union School District officials said they will begin school at 10 a.m. and release students at 2:10 p.m., should the power be out on Monday, and Millville School will get out at 1 p.m.

Meanwhile, as of 8:30 a.m. Friday, PG&E had restored the last of the North State customers who were without power since Wednesday afternoon, company spokesman Paul Moreno said. Those customers were in Tehama County, not Shasta.

Update, 3:52 p.m. Friday

Up to 28,460 Shasta County customers of PG&E could lose power in precautionary shutoffs, more than were affected during the previous outages that hit the county on Oct. 9.

In Tehama County, up to 19,238 customers could be affected, according to a press release from the utility company. Over 2,800 combined customers in the two counties have urgent medical needs requiring electricity.

In Shasta County, the outages could affect residents in Anderson, Bella Vista, Big Bend, Cottonwood, French Gulch, Igo, Lakehead, Millville, Montgomery Creek, Oak Run, Ono, Palo Cedro, Platina, Round Mountain, Shingletown, Whiskeytown and Whitmore, said PG&E.

Hot and windy weather is expected on Saturday between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. It will last until midday on Monday.

Potential planned power outages are expected to affect about 850,000 customers across 36 California counties, said PG&E..

Predictive data models indicate the weather event could be the most powerful in California in decades, with widespread dry northeast winds between 45-60 mph and peak gusts of 60-70 mph in the higher elevations, according to a statement Friday from PG&E.

Cascade Union Elementary Schools will be closed on Monday, due to the possibility of a power outage, school officials announced on Friday.

Affected schools include:

Meadow Lane Elementary School

Anderson Heights Elementary School

Anderson Middle School

North State Aspire Academy

Tree of Life International Charter School

Schools Cascade Union schools are scheduled to resume at their regular times on Tuesday.

Other schools that have announced potential closures on Monday include:

All Anderson Union High School District school sites will be closed on Monday and resume on Tuesday

Pacheco Union School District - Prarie/Pacheco Schools will be closed on Monday

Happy Valley Union School District officials said they will begin school at 10 a.m. and release students at 2:10 p.m. should the power be out on Monday.

Millville School will remain open on a 'minimum day' schedule on Monday, with dismissal at 1 p.m. See www.millvilleschool.net for more information.

Millville School will remain open on a minimum day schedule during the planned power outage; dismissal at 1:00.

Update, 11:35 a.m. Friday

New details have emerged in the possible shooting of a PG&E truck Wednesday, but officers said it's still unclear whether someone was targeting the utility.

The incident happened around 5:45 a.m. on Highway 32 about a mile west of Hamilton City, the California Highway Patrol said.

The PG&E worker who reported the incident said it could have been a rock that hit his truck's passenger window, but the CHP said Friday it appears to have been a pellet or BB gun.

Still, while PG&E denounced the incident as what it believed to be a "deliberate attack" at a press conference Wednesday, the CHP hasn't determined that the truck was targeted because of its affiliation with company, said officer Logan Callahan of the Chico office.

"Our officers confirmed it did appear to be a strike from either a pellet or a BB gun, but ... we haven't been able to determine whether or not it was an intentional act against PG&E," Callahan said.

Whatever hit the truck didn't penetrate the window, Callahan said, and the employee wasn't injured.

Glenn County CHP also responded to the incident, and officer Tracy Hoover said the PG&E employee waited until he got to a coffee shop in Chico to call 911. He specifically reported that either a rock hit his window or someone shot at him, Hoover said dispatch records show.

Callahan said the employee appears to have waited to call 911 because it was dark out and he was in a remote area when the incident happened.

The only person seen around at the time was a female pedestrian, Callahan said.

PG&E said its own security team believes the incident was an attack on the utility.

"Let me say this directly: There is not justification for this sort of violence," PG&E Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said at Wednesday's press conference. "Most of our front-line employees live in the communities where they work. Be upset at PG&E. Don't take it out on the people trying to help you."

Anyone with information is asked to call Chico CHP at 530-332-2800.

"At this time, we don’t have any information on a suspect or anything else," Callahan said.

Update, 8:30 a.m. Friday

As PG&E considers another round of planned power outages for this weekend, the utility has released an address look-up tool.

Spokesman Paul Moreno said the site is the best way for residents and businesses to determine if their power will be shut off should PG&E move forward with the planned outage on Saturday.

"Based on current weather forecasts we are aiming for a PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoff) event on Saturday in much of the North State," Moreno said via email Friday morning. "Calls, emails, texts have gone out to potentially impacted customers."

Moreno said later Friday PG&E will have more specifics on the timing of the power outage.

Meanwhile, as of 8:30 a.m. Friday, PG&E had restored the last of the North State customers who were without power since Wednesday afternoon, Moreno said.

MORE:North State residents blast PG&E at CPUC meeting in Redding

Update, 6:05 p.m. Thursday

The outage that might happen this weekend could be longer than the one at the beginning of the month, PG&E says.

That's because the utility said forecasts indicate winds this weekend could be at their strongest in years, with gusts up to 80 mph in some places.

PG&E said at a press conference Thursday the potential weekend outage would be coming to parts of the Bay Area, Humboldt County and the Sierra foothills, but they didn't have specifics beyond that.

"We don't know yet exactly the footprint on those areas," said Bill Johnson, the company's chief executive officer.

PG&E officials noted at the press conference that the strong winds during this week's outage have dried out vegetation even more, and the utility looks at both wind speeds and dryness when deciding to shut off power.

California power shutdown map:Here are the impacted counties

While the utility said its goal is to keep planned outages under 48 hours each, Johnson said he "hopes it wouldn't go beyond" that.

Still, the current forecast would warrant power going out sometime Saturday and possibly staying out past Sunday, PG&E said.

The utility said it plans to restore power to those who were without it Wednesday and Thursday before turning it off again Saturday, but that could be difficult in Sonoma County because of the Kincade Fire.

Update, 3 p.m. Thursday

Shasta County residents are now being told to prepare for precautionary power shutoffs this weekend, according to an announcement from the city of Anderson.

In a Facebook post, the municipality said PG&E notified the county and city administrations on Thursday the area "will be a part of the next event" beginning Saturday at about 10 p.m. and lasting until Monday afternoon.

The shutoffs are "definitely going to be taking place if weather conditions continue as forecasted," according to the post.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service of Sacramento are forecasting possible "extreme fire" conditions with "potential for the strongest wind event so far this fall." Wind gusts up to 40-60 mph are expected.

The city of Anderson is telling residents to expect notifications from PG&E by 2 p.m. Friday.

The company's website, which allows residents to enter their address to see if they'll be affected by the shutoffs, has not been updated with Shasta County addresses, the city of Anderson wrote.

Asked about the Facebook post, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said the company does "not have any concrete details on which or what parts of particular counties will be impacted."

Moreno said the company typically updates cities and counties about "potential events" for planning purposes.

"We are still monitoring the weather forecasts and will have more details by Friday," he said.

Update, 9:30 a.m. Thursday

PG&E confirmed that an employee driving in Glenn County reported that a projectile hit his moving vehicle, causing damage to the front passenger window on Wednesday.

"Our security investigator believes the projectile was fired from a pellet gun. The employee is safe and was not injured. We are looking into this incident along with law enforcement," PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said in an email.

Update, 8:15 a.m. Thursday

Later today, PG&E crews could start inspecting power lines that have been shut off to minimize risk of a wildfire.

Utility officials said Wednesday that forecasts indicate the peak period of winds should end at noon today.

"Once the high winds subside, PG&E crews will inspect the de-energized lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event. PG&E will then safely restore power in stages as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring the vast majority of customers within 48 hours after the weather has passed," the utility said in a news release.

The power outage, which started Wednesday afternoon, is affecting nearly 180,000 customers in portions of 17 counties, including Tehama, where 750 customers are in the dark.

Crews will be doing safety inspections in an area that covers more than 8,000 miles of distribution lines and nearly 650 miles of transmission lines, a combined equivalent distance of two round trips from Chico to Chicago, PG&E said.

Meanwhile, a wildfire is raging in Sonoma County.

The Kincade Fire started early this morning and has burned 10,000 acres.

PG&E officials said the fire is burning near the area where the utility shut off power Wednesday afternoon, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

The fire is at zero percent containment.

Original story

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. started turning off power to customers Wednesday afternoon in portions of 17 counties, including Tehama.

The power outage is part of PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program.

“This ... decision was based on forecasts of dry, hot and windy weather that poses a higher risk for damage and sparks on the electric system and rapid wildfire spread,” PG&E said in a news release Wednesday morning.

The shutoff is expected to affect about 179,000 customers in 17 counties: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Mateo, Sierra, Sonoma, Tehama and Yuba.

The shutoffs started around 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Sierra foothills, 3 p.m. in the North Bay counties, and power will be turned off at 1 a.m. Thursday in parts of San Mateo and Kern counties, PG&E said.

Crews cut power in Tehama County starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and the outage will affect about 750 customers in Paynes Creek, Manton and Mineral, PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said.

The peak period for winds are forecast to end around noon Thursday for the northern Sacramento Valley, PG&E officials said.

After the winds calm, PG&E crews will inspect the lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event, and then restore power. The goal is to restore power within 48 hours after the weather has passed.

Despite the red flag warning, Shasta County is not among the counties tabbed for this round of power shutoffs. Winds here are expected to gust to 45 mph with daytime humidity hovering between 10 percent and 20 percent before winds calm by Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the fire weather danger forecast through Thursday in the northern Sacramento Valley is anticipated to return Sunday, the National Weather Service said Wednesday morning.

Forecasters said another strong wind event is possible Sunday, which could heighten the fire risk.

Those conditions are forecast to return early Sunday morning and stick around until early Monday, the National Weather Service said.

“Daytime temperatures will be around 10-15 degrees above normal through Saturday, which will enhance dry conditions across the area,” the National Weather Service said in a news release. “Another round of dry northerly winds is possible early Sunday morning through early Monday morning. This could be an even stronger wind event than today (Wednesday), though confidence is low in specific details at this time.”

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David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.