Santa Rosa Junior College students and faculty called for better warning from PG&E after the electric company announced today plans to cut power to over 800,000 customers due to rising fire danger.
PG&E’s plans to cut power at midnight tonight, and the outage will affect residents in Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Lake counties, among others. Shortly after PG&E’s announcement, the college announced the closure of all campuses on Wednesday, Oct. 9, until further notice.
“It would be cool to have a better layout of what is going to be affected by the power outage,” said Jessica Greep, 21. “I’m totally not ready to be without power at home.”
At least one faculty member believes PG&E’s move to cut power is a rushed decision.
“I know there’s heightened interest ever since we had the fires two years ago,” said SRJC college skills instructor Carlos Valencia. “But there is a part of me that wonders if there’s some overreaction going on.”
Some students called for more precise details about the outage.
“I want to know if emergency services are going to be available, and traffic lights,” said SRJC student Aurelio Aguilar, 20. “I just think these are important questions to ask.”
The power outage will affect even those who don’t attend classes on Wednesdays.
“I don’t even have class tomorrow,” said Azulito Bernal, 19. “But this could make it a lot harder to work on homework and stay caught up.”
The main complaint from SRJC students and faculty appears to be a lack of communication by PG&E regarding its plans to shut power off.
“I haven’t had much time to process this, and it’s always nice to have a day off,” said Regina Guerra, an SRJC math instructor. “I just wish PG&E could think about the impact this has on people’s lives.”
