Major roads are navigable this morning throughout Mendocino County yet thousands are without power after significant snowfall in the higher elevations fell last night.
This morning over nearly 3,000 Mendocino County residents are without power, as per the Pacific Gas and Electric Outage map. The overwhelming majority of those customers (1,368) are in Round Valley, where Covelo is located in the northeast corner of the county. Currently, there is no estimated time of restoration and there are social media rumors that are indicating the power will be back on 12/31/2021. We have an inquiry with PG&E Spokeswoman Deanna Contreras about the veracity of this information.
There is also a significant outage in the area of Laytonville with 504 customers estimated to be affected. Power is estimated to be restored by 10:00 p.m. tonight.
The other significant outage is in the area of Bowman’s Place, Tan Oak Park, and Cummings along Highway 101 in the North County where 649 customers are without power. There is no current estimated time for restoration.
Beyond the incident marked in orange, smaller clusters of outages are affecting residents along the Highway 101 corridor in Willits, Brooktrails, and other outlying areas.
A review of the Caltrans Quick Map and the California Highway Patrol Traffic Incident Information Page indicates that Mendocino County’s major roads are passable this morning. Commuters, please add extra drive time, illuminate headlights and practice extra caution in the inclement weather.
Ridgewood Summit south of Willits was plowed this morning and sand was spread to stabilize the roadway for commuters.
It is important to note that though major highways are deemed passable, Mendocino County’s rural roads are not monitored by officials and can be unpassable due to snow currently. Mendocino County: please list any currently unpassable roads in the comments. This is one of those arenas only our rural knowledge can speak to.
