Solana Beach council receives presentation on wildfire safety

San Diego Gas & Electric made a presentation to the Solana Beach City Council Oct. 22 about wildfire safety and preparedness.

“This season is important because we have changing weather conditions,” said Joe Garibaldi, an SDG&E senior public affairs manager. “What might have been a presentation a month ago has changed a little bit with the recent rains, but it’s still very important to note that the majority of our state has had a very wet start to the water year. Temperatures have been slightly below normal due to above average precipitation.”

The state is currently in a La Niña advisory.

“This in turn may cause below average rainfall amounts and below average temperatures in Southern California,” Garibaldi said.

There is also a public safety power shutoff that can be initiated under certain weather conditions.

The process starts 7-10 days ahead with monitoring the weather event and the communities that could be affected. Then one day before, communities might be notified that their power could be turned off as a precaution.

“We are monitoring things round the clock until weather conditions start to subside and then we can start patrolling,” Garibaldi said. “So patrol is the first step before we can actually turn on power. We’re inspecting the overhead power lines in some of the rural rugged areas, and we have to fly helicopters. They can’t fly until the wind speed is below 35 mph. So a lot of boots are on the ground who are making these observations to make sure that the infrastructure has not been damaged so that we can restore power as quickly as possible.”

Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Kristi Becker asked about compensation for prolonged outages that cause food spoilage and other side effects, and advisories with shifting guidance about when power will come back on.

“I just feel like maybe a tiny bit more information as to why the construction did not get done or just why it’s being extended and quicker updates,” Becker said. “It just gets frustrating.”

Garibaldi said there is a way to submit claims to SDG&E for damages.

“If it’s planned work, we’re aiming to get it done as quickly as possible and beat that timeline,” Garibaldi said. “When we project things on an unplanned outage, we have based on the initial site reviews, we might get an additional timeline, but when other crews get on site, there could be additional work that’s needed, and that is why those times get moved out.”