NAPA – City leaders, including Mayor Jill Techel, have thanked PG&E for its rapid and thorough response to the major earthquake that struck the city and surrounding areas in the early morning hours of Aug. 24.
From left, PG&E's Troy Bard, Napa Fire Division Chief John Callanan, Napa Mayor Jill Techel, PG&E's Geisha Williams, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson and PG&E's Barry Anderson during their tour of the city.
On August 29th, Techel presented PG&E with a key to the city as a token of the city’s gratitude. Geisha Williams, PG&E’s executive vice president of Electric Operations, gratefully accepted the key on behalf of the company’s 22,000 employees.
“I was amazed how quickly PG&E got electric service up and running for all our citizens,” Techel said. “Even more amazing was the work of the gas crews who came out, inspected, relit and walked us through our houses to be sure everything was functioning as it should. Their quick action made it much easier for residents to get moving on with their lives.”
The mayor expressed personal thanks, saying she was grateful to have found a live person on the other end of the phone line when she called PG&E shortly after the quake struck.
Others have thanked PG&E for its response, too. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat newspaper published a full-page ad expressing its thanks in its Sunday edition (see below).
Getting the key to the city was a "tremendous honor" for PG&E, said Geisha Williams, the company's executive vice president of Electric Operations.
Napa City Manager Mike Parness noted how well PG&E worked in coordination with the city and with first responders. The company’s response extended beyond restoring electricity and fixing gas leaks, Parness said, and even included providing dump trucks to help city crews haul away debris.
“The response provided by PG&E to the local earthquake disaster in Napa was nothing short of amazing,” Parness said. “The timely restoration of power and immediate attention to reported gas leaks went far in providing a much needed sense of security and safety for our residents and businesses.”
“We’re extremely proud to serve the Napa community. Our employees live and work here too and it was a tremendous honor for PG&E to be presented with the key to the city of Napa,” said Williams. “The city and its first responders were outstanding partners. They helped us establish a staging area for our out-of-town crews and to quickly access impacted communities so that we could safely restore service to our customers. At the same time, I’d also like to sincerely thank our customers for the kindness and generosity they showed to our crews in their homes and neighborhoods throughout the impacted area during the restoration effort.”
First responders, city leaders and PG&E officials toured damaged areas of Napa.
After receiving the key and watching a video of the damage taken by an aerial drone, Williams and the group went on a walking tour to see the quake’s impact first hand. The group was joined by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson.
PG&E was able to restore power to 70,000 customers in Napa and Sonoma counties within about 26 hours. Over the next few days, PG&E gas service representatives conducted courtesy safety checks and customer-care employees visited business and residential customers.
Using car-mounted leak-detection vehicles, which allow operators to conduct leak surveys, find previously undetectable leaks, and dramatically improve productivity and regulatory compliance while driving at normal traffic speeds, PG&E surveyed more than 675,000 feet of gas pipeline and more than 11,100 customer meters. The mobile technology was used twice each day and the gas indications driven by the technology were all followed up on foot with leak survey personnel. Surveys were performed in American Canyon, Napa and Vallejo.
PG&E also donated $25,000 to the Napa County Chapter of the American Red Cross to help in relief efforts.
Click here to watch a video on PG&E’s response efforts after the quake.
Email Currents at currents@pge.com.