Seniors stuck in the dark for nearly a week, all while they are self-isolating
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Nevada City (KOVR) — A group of seniors in Nevada City say they’ve been without power for nearly a week, all while they are self-isolating.
John Brackett, 68, said snow dumped at his Nevada City home. CBS13 spoke to Brackett over the phone as he and his wife Lori are self-isolating because of the coronavirus.
“It’s like camping, but you’re not doing it for fun,” Brackett said.
But John, Lori and 11 of their senior neighbors, who Brackett said are in the 70s and 80s, are doing it without power.
He said a power line went down in their neighborhood during the low elevation snowstorm that hit the Sierra Foothills over the weekend. On top of not having power, the downed power line is blocking the way in and out of their neighborhood.
Brackett said he and his wife are using a generator sparingly, but the couple is using firewood and a wood-burning stove to keep warm and cook.
“These people can’t get out, they can’t get in. They’re running out of gas. They’re running out of propane and here we sit,” Brackett said.
The couple said they’ve called PG&E to see when power would be restored and aren’t satisfied with the response.
“They repeat what the situation is and that we will have power estimated tomorrow generally it’s like 6 pm or 8 pm and tomorrow never comes,” Brackett said.
PG&E said sometimes when an estimated time is given in the utility’s system and crews aren’t able to get to an area, those restoration times then have to be adjusted. While the utility said it understands the hardship, it maintains that crews are doing everything they can to repair the damage.
“I want to blame them but they’re doing what they can do so,” Brackett said.
PG&E also said on Thursday that 12,293 customers in El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sierra, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolomne counties are without power. The utility states many should be back in service by Friday and that areas with extensive damage will still see longer outages.
PG&E told CBS13 it has more than 165 crews working to restore services to its customers.
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