CityLab Daily: The Fears Behind the Bay Area’s Historic Power Outage

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Candle in the wind: Much of the California Bay Area was blacked out yesterday, in a move that the state utility said would head off the risk that high winds could spark a deadly blaze. It’s being called a “preemptive blackout.” But what does that really mean? Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) started shutting down parts of the electricity grid for safety purposes last year after its fragile and poorly maintained power lines helped ignite the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, California. But this shutdown could last a while—as much as five days in some areas. An estimated 2.4 million people could be in the dark, although the most urbanized parts of the region should be left mostly untouched.