Utility Begins Shutting Off Power In California

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Pacific Gas & Electric has begun shutting off power to the San Francisco Bay area, adding more than 200,000 customers to a sweeping blackout that already has left a million people in the dark. The utility said late Wednesday night that power was going out in the East Bay, South Bay and Santa Cruz counties. A few counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Central Valley saw power cuts earlier in the day. But the Bay Area outages had been pushed back all day until authorities were sure dry, gusty Diablo winds were on the way.  PG&E earlier cut power to 500,000 homes and businesses in northern and central counties.  The utility says the precautionary cuts are to prevent the winds from toppling power lines and sparking deadly wildfires like one – blamed on PG&E equipment – that killed 85 people in November.