"You should be ready for the power to cut off at any moment," Ian Anderson, a government relations manager for Edison, told the Moorpark City Council at an October meeting. He urged residents to buy generators and said the utility doesn't reimburse customers for spoiled food and other losses if it believes the blackouts were required by "an act of God."
At PG&E's weather lab in San Ramon, Scott Strenfel studies a huge digital map on the wall displaying temperatures, dew points and humidity levels across California. At a spot in Kern Hills outside of Bakersfield, wind gusts of 39 mph were forecast to hit. Hey team, thunderstorm outflow down in Kern at 3 p.m., Strenfel calls out to his fellow scientists, each behind double computer screens.