California Power Outage: Who's Eligible for $25 to $100 Payments?

Hundreds of Monterey Peninsula homeowners are still without power due to previous harsh weather as California prepares for a new atmospheric river on Tuesday.

Affected PG&E customers may be eligible for the company's Safety Net Program. The program compensates residential customers who lost electricity for more than 48 hours.

PG&E Safety Net Program

The Safety Net Program automatically pays $25 to $100 60 to 120 days following a power loss. The cost depends on the duration of the outage, as per KSBW. Only customers with the following rate schedules are eligible for the Storm Inconvenience Payment: E-1, E-6, E-7, E-8, EM, ES, ESR, ET, E-TOU, and EV. Non-residential accounts are ineligible for the payment as well. For a comprehensive list of criteria, please visit PG&E's website.

In January, torrential rains and floods buried whole towns and killed more than 20 people in portions of California. They also forced hundreds of farmworkers to forgo weeks of income since dangerous, slippery, muddy roadways bordered flooded fields and orchards.

With recent disclosures that some farmworkers live in inadequate circumstances, the severe storm-related losses support the argument that California should broaden its safety net to assist its agricultural labor in surviving such setbacks.

Bill 227, proposed by Los Angeles Democrats Mara Elena Durazo, Wendy Carrillo, and Miguel Santiago, would establish an Excluded Workers Program to compensate illegal, jobless employees $300 per week for each unemployment week to 20 weeks.

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the agricultural workforce and several other businesses. The legislature passed a similar jobless workers law, referring to the pandemic, with primarily Democratic backing, according to CBS8.

But California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, stating that merely equipping and establishing the program would cost more than $200 million in upfront public money, not considering the real cost of the jobless compensation.

The expected cost of the proposal's benefits from the previous year was $597 million. Thus far, there has been no equivalent assessment published with the new bill's text. In addition to unemployment payments, the top suggestion among numerous politicians and activists, other ideas under discussion to support farmworkers include disaster or hazard compensation and drought relief monies.

California Power Outage

Another atmospheric river has arrived in Northern California, bringing even more rain to hard-hit areas. Much of the Bay Area is under a strong wind warning, while a flood advisory is in force in San Francisco. Although this storm may produce less precipitation than last week's storm and is expected to be shorter, its high winds may cause greater damage.

Around 274,000 PG&E customers in the Bay Area were without power as of the afternoon, with most of those outages happening in the East Bay and South Bay. High winds also led San Francisco International Airport to suspend flights momentarily.

High gusts are predicted to progressively ramp down this afternoon as the storm continues to exit Northern California. Due to fallen trees and wires, Caltrans stated Tuesday evening that a part of Highway 1 would be closed overnight.

The closure will extend from Carmel's Spindrift Drive to Andrew Molera State Park. "This is a permanent shutdown that is anticipated to endure overnight. The danger posed by fallen trees and electrical wires is severe. High winds in the area continue to be a worry," authorities noted in a news statement.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge reopened Tuesday following a three-hour shutdown caused by an overturned tractor-trailer. The disruption forced travelers to seek other routes.

Authorities reopened eastbound Interstate 580 at about 5:25 p.m. to all cars, CHP officials reported. Officers responded just before noon to reports that a trailer had flipped on the eastbound part of the bridge, CHP said. A wind advisory was in effect when the trailer overturned on the bridge.

According to SF Chronicles, authorities in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties said Tuesday that hundreds of families were evacuated due to severe storms pushed by an atmospheric river.

The National Guard evacuated over 800 houses and two mobile home parks in Monterey County. In Santa Cruz County, a fairground in Watsonville was filled with 320 people, requiring the activation of new evacuation shelters in a local college and a leisure facility, officials said.

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