PG&E’s evening update for their Sierra Division has set a Jan. 11th or earlier date for the restoration of utility power to the remaining 18,350 customers in their Sierra division. The assessment of damages is now complete, according to the news release, and the latest updates to customers should be firm restoration dates, allowing people to better plan for the coming days.

The release reads, in part:

“As of 3 p.m. this afternoon, PG&E crews have essentially completed their assessments in Sierra County, Nevada County, Placer County, El Dorado County and a portion of Yuba County. Assessments allow us to create Estimated Times of Restoration (ETOR) that account for amount of damage, equipment and materials needed to make repairs, available resources, hours of daylight and other factors. Based on what we’ve found, we are starting to communicate more accurate estimated times of restoration to customers. Many customers will be restored in the coming days and we can commit to an ETOR of Tuesday, Jan. 11 for customers. To be clear, many customers will be restored earlier, but we wanted to share this Jan. 11 ETOR date to give customers a line of sight into the next period of time.“[emphasis added]

Other details included in the release: “More than 2,000 personnel working on assessments and restoration across our service area, including 1,200 lineworkers. 280 team crews that are currently supporting the Sierra Division. 14 teams are en route and will arrive tomorrow and 14 more crews are scheduled to arrive on January 6.”

Currently, there are 427 separate outages impacting 10,490 customers in Nevada County. As of this morning, damages included:

  • 307 power poles
  • 580 locations where the conductor or the line needs repair
  • 171 crossarms
  • 70 transformers