abc7 news reporter hassan joins us from santa rosa, and boy, these folks here think, here we go again. >> reporter: that's right, deon, the winds really started to kick up a short while ago. san jose fire officials say a lot of times the fires will burn here in the hills, but the concern tonight is that the winds will push down into the valley below which puts more people at risk. wanda smith had friends come by to help her cut the trees around her house. >> i'm worried, especially with the winds the next two days, if there is another fire all this brush that's been accumulating for about 20 or 30 years might catch fire because of the winds. >> her house was spared from the glass fire just by the road behind her house. and later today, she will likely be without power. >> if it's true they're going to have high winds, i would rather have the power off than a fire. >> the concerns for us are the winds, primarily.

>> reporter: paul lowenthal is the assistant fire marshal at the fire house. they have been positioned so if a fire does break out, they can quickly respond in order to keep the fires from spreading. but he says the big concern is the wind going to the property below and also reaching in the areas. >> we have three years of regrowth, so there is a lot of seasonal grasses and brush that is regrown, and that area does remain a concern for us. >> reporter: according to lowenthal, because pg&e have reduced the amount of customers who will have their power cut, it means more energized lines which can pose a risk. >> part of our planning is knowing that our city will remain energized, so that has us on high alert. there is the potential that we could have fires as a result of high power lines. >> they spent the week clearing

their house, garage and attic. they say it's going to be a tough season. >> we're exhausted. today i spent more time cutting down more grasses, raking up more leaves. it's just -- it's overwhelming. >> overwhelming says it all. let's get you now to that live update from pg&e now in progress. let's take a listen. >> it looks like high numbers tonight. these winds are combining with extremely low humidity plus record dry vegetation, and that's on top of severe to extreme drought conditions in many areas. taken together, these conditions pose an increased risk of damage to our electric system and the potential for wildfire. so as a last resort, given this heightened weather risk, we are turning off power today to about 361,000 of our roughly 5 million electric customers. these customers are in portions of 36 counties and 17 tribal

communities, and as of this briefing, about 225,000 customers have already been de-energized and an additional 136,000 customers are expected to be shut off throughout this evening. now, we expect safe weather to return in most areas starting tomorrow around midday. in other areas, it could be tuesday morning when the winds subside and we're able to start our patrols and our restoration. safety permitting, we aim to restore power to all customers in stages monday night through tuesday night. and i want to emphasize we really want to help our customers get through this. we know it could be a hardship to be without power, especially right now as we're going through the coronavirus pandemic. many people are working from home, many kids are going to school from home, so we're offering a number of resources throughout this shutoff to our customers. we've opened 106 community resource centers throughout the affected areas, and we've also partnered with local food banks

and community-based organizations to offer further assistance. this is particularly for our customers who have medical needs. aaron will provide more details on that in just a moment. for now i want to thank everyone for your understanding and patience as we work to keep our community and customers safe. with that i'll ask our meteorologist to join us, tell us what they're seeing. scott, i'm in the greater sacramento valley, sort of the sierra foothills, and boy, the wind really started kicking up about an hour or two ago. >> yeah, hey, thanks, lindsay, and good evening, everyone. this morning i think we were all waking up, some of us around the bay area, to a marine layer, and really over the last couple hours we've seen an ultra dry air mass kind of wash north to south over the state, and that whole marine layer is evaporated. it's pushed it well offshore, and like you said, lindsay, we're just entering kind of this

significant and dangerous risk period. overall, we've been tracking weather models and looking at observations to make sure that this event is on track, and so far all indications are that, unfortunately, this event is going to transpire as many of the weather forecast models have predicted. and so we do have right now, like you said, winds coming down the sacramento valley. they're kind of spreading out over the north bay area. i'm looking at weather station obs right now, and we have some observations right now in the north bay hills gusting at 53 miles per hour with relative humidity down 15%. it's been interesting to watch quite the change and quite the dryness levels as that dry air mass is moving into the state. i will say that we're just entering kind of the most dangerous period of this event. over the next four or five hours, we will see winds really ramp up. we expect the peak tonight -- basically the peak is going to

be later tonight, overnight into monday morning, and as those winds start to die off, we'll be looking at these weather station observations to make all clear decisions as soon as it's safe to do so to begin the restoration process. we do believe that there will be a second round of winds overnight tomorrow night into tuesday morning, mainly focusing over some of our wind-prone areas, the elevated terrain in the north bay, the elevated terrain along the sierra, as well as some of the terrain up in the northern sierras, so some of those areas may not be safe to issue the all clear until tuesday, but we'll be monitoring 24/7 throughout this event to try it make those decisions as best we can and when it's safe to do so. we've been talking with the national weather service and other federal forecast agencies and all agencies are in line that this is going to be and this will be the strongest event of the season, and we have multiple red flag warnings in effect. the image shows the extent of

the red flag warnings. it doesn't get much more expansive than what's on the screen here with red flag warning over pretty much all of northern california extending down the sierra nevada and then wrapping around and there is a red flag warning extending across southern california with a santa ana wind event coming. but the forest service is forecasting pretty severe wind gusts with this scenario, potentially up to and exceeding 70 miles per hour in some cases, and we're already seeing indications that relative humidities are basically rock bottom. up in redding, relative humidity is at 5% and that dry air will work its way south. across california, as we go through the evening, we will see those relative humidities fall. like you kind of teed up, this is happening on top of, you know, pretty extreme dry levels

of fuel out there. we know that the risk of catastrophic fires is extremely high, so basically, you know, this is shaping up to be a significant fire weather and critical fire weather day. with that i'll end my briefing and turn it back to you, lindsay. >> the map that's up there right now, scott, that shows the red flag warnings, and then when you talk about relative low humidities in the single digits combined with these really high wind gusts, it's easy to see why this is such a concerning event. do we have any idea when we're going to start to see some humidity levels rise and maybe some rain? >> yeah, unfortunately, looking in the long range, we don't see any rain in the next kind of 7 to 10 days, so it looks like we will have a ridge, basically, of high pressure move west and kind of park ifrtself over californi. although we're not seeing any rain, we're also not seeing any

return of offshore diablo wind events. but as far as humidity recovery, over the course of the next couple days, we'll see relative humidity kind of taper up, but we're not seeing anything significant in the way of, you know, any storms on the horizon, unfortunately, at this time. >> okay. thanks very much for that update, scott. let's go to mark quidland now. he's director of operations for this. mark, can you tell us where we're at now? a number of folks already without power, and as scott says, we'll see a high wind event overnight, it looks like. >> yeah, thank you, lindsay. good evening, everyone. i want to start off by acknowledging that the fire season this year in 2020 has been incredibly challenging. we're doing everything that we can at pg&e to reduce the risk of wildfires and psps is just one of the ways we do that. it's our last resort option, and

we take the decision incredibly seriously. once we do make the decision to execute in the interest of public safety, we do everything that we can to make the event as small as possible because we understand that power outages are hardships, and that's why we work so hard to make them small. then when we restore that, when you make t -- we make the restoration as short as possible. this is what the scope of the event looks like. you can see approximately 361,000 customer accounts and a lot of people associated to those accounts, and we understand that. it covers 36 of our counties and 17 tribal lands. the map on the right-hand side of the slide in the yellowish color gives you an understanding from a geographic perspective where those high-risk danger zones exist, and the 361,000

customer accounts all exist within that event footprint. right now as of this briefing, we've already begun the shutoff process. we're currently with roughly 225,000 customer accounts out of service. the remainder are estimated at this time to be shut off over the next four to six hours, and we anticipate everybody will be shut off and the system will be safe ahead of those very dangerous winds shortly after midnight. then after that, we'll be pivoting and monitoring the live weather conditions and looking for opportunities to start our patrol and restoration process. the next slide will talk a little bit how we do that. after every psps event, it's a five-step process to patrol our system, restore it and return your power.

the first thing that we do, we rely on intelligence that we gather from the meteorology team, our weather stations, other forecast models. >> in progress right now, you have been listening to a press briefing from pg&e on the current state of the psps event that is expected to affect just about 361,000 customers in all bay area counties, that is, except for san francisco. you are taking a look at the website of a map of the outer areas. it's also listed on our website. it also has specific times for

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to fight these fires, we need funding - plain and simple. for this crisis, and for the next one. prop 15 closes tax loopholes so rich corporations pay their fair share of taxes. so firefighters like me, have what we need to do the job, and to do it right. the big corporations want to keep their tax loopholes. it's what they do. well, i do what i do. if you'ld like to help, join me and vote yes on prop 15.

five people who work close to vice president mike pence have tested positive for the coronavirus. that includes his chief of staff mark short and pence's body man. all five are in quarantine and are assisting with contacts tracing. pence's wife karen tested positive yesterday morning and again this morning. pence continues to campaign and just appeared at this rally tonight in north carolina. with the election just nine days away, early voting is now

open in all 50 states. president trump campaigned today in several battleground states, encouraging voters to vote in person. >> my biggest fear, my biggest risk for this election is the unsolicited -- the millions of unsolicited ballots they're sending out. in california they're sending millions and millions and millions of ballots. >> governor newsom ordered ballots only to be sent to the state's registered voters. joe biden was in pennsylvania yesterday telling supporters the president has failed the american people. >> when i

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you can take a day off fromy worrying about your packages. ♪ ohhh yeahhh! just connect your myq® app to key. ♪ ohhh yeahhh! get free in-garage delivery with myq® and key by amazon. as we continue following the most severe wind event of the season, we've been keeping an eye on the psps, which is underway now. we know power has been cut in parts of sonoma, and we're talking about high winds and also that very low humidity. >> low humidity and also record

fuels, because all this combined will create very extreme fire weather. i want to show you my doppler 7 with the satellite radar image showing you the winds shifting, pushing all the clouds away, and check out this pretty shot. you can just see the sunset happening right now. temperatures are dropping in some areas of san francisco, 58, half moon bay 65 degrees. in san francisco, 17-mile-per-hour winds gusting in higher elevations. the wind advisory just started at 4:00 this afternoon. gusts at 75 miles per hour on the peaks, so we're looking for possible downed trees and power outages which we know to expect. look at the winds. at 8:00 tonight they start to pick up, and this is that dry offshore flow. notice overnight tonight into tomorrow we'll see the strongest winds around the bay area, and then will start to taper off

midday tomorrow for the immediate bay area, but we'll still see some strong gusty winds through parts of the north bay mountains and east bay hills. that's why the red flag warning there has been extended until 5:00 tuesday, but it will expire for the areas in the lower elevations at 11:00 tomorrow. so in addition to the strong winds, as deon mentioned, we're dealing with low humidity and this is bringing us the critical fire weather. i want to show you the relative humidity dropping over the next few, 24 hours, rather, and look at tomorrow afternoon, we'll see single digits. this is desert dry conditions and ripe for fires to start and spread pretty quickly. there is also gale warnings for the bay, so you want to avoid being out on the bay with gusts up to 15 knots expected through tomorrow morning as well. and be careful if you're driving across the bridges tonight and tomorrow morning, because the winds will really bounce you around, especially if you have an suv or higher vehicle. overnight lows, under clear skies we'll be dropping.

we'll be getting pretty cool in parts of the north bay. in santa rosa down to 32, even 30s in lake port and around the bay area. with the clear skies and windy conditions, temperatures will be in the narrow range. 70s at the beaches, mid-70s at the bay, san jose 77 and upper 70s will be the warmest spots for many inland areas. here's the accuweather 7-day forecast. extreme fire danger tonight through tomorrow, and then, of course, we'll have that fire danger continue through the higher elevations on tuesday. but then get ready for some very chilly mornings as some of the north bay valleys will wake up to temperatures in the mid-30s through the middle of the week. for halloween, it's looking partly cloudy and a little bit milder, and don't forget to turn your clocks back for an hour saturday night into sunday when daylight saving ends. >> announcer: now abc7 sports

with chris alvarez. it's been nearly three years since the niners traded with the patriots jimmy garoppolo back in 2018. safe to say san francisco won that deal. jimmy g. making his way to new england today. niners take the opening drive and march 75 yards down the field. jeff wilson jr. breaking the play and it's san francisco out of the game. cam newton just 93 yards and three interceptions. fred warner snagging that one. the niners' defense figuring that one out the last couple games. on that drive, then, giving it to juice. four yards in, spikes it. 6-3 niners. final minute in the first half, give it to wilson. what a day he had. 16 yards here, his second score of the day. the third time a bill belichick coach team has allowed that

much. 23-6 at recess. wilson again his third tee of the day, but he landed on his ankle. they think it's an ankle sprain. he left on a cart. we'll wait to see the results of the mri. the 24-point margin is the largest patriots loss at home in official ballot drop box near need to fiyou?he closest just visit vote.ca.gov to find your nearest location. then drop off your ballot. your vote will be secure and counted. there are other ways to vote too. just return your vote-by-mail ballot

at your voting location or mail it back. or you can vote safely in-person during early voting or on election day. vote the way you're most comfortable - but vote by 8pm on november 3rd. uber and lyft are like every big guy i've ever brought down. prop 22 doesn't "help" their drivers-- it denies them benefits. 22 doesn't help women. it actually weakens sexual harassment laws, which are meant to protect them.

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as those high winds pick up across the bay area, we've got team coverage around the region. lake counties and sonoma county already being affected by the psps event. a parade happened over the weekend to get people to cast their ballots in the upcoming election. finally, a crew stepped up to help a young giants fan whose baseball cards went up in smoke in fresno county. she's been collecting baseball cards for two years now, and she's part of the kids who lost their cards in the fires. >> my favorite one in the collection was buster posey. >> oh, no. now the fire crews are leading

the step up >> this is near and dear to their heart, and this is an opportunity for us to help them out and replace some of the cards they lost. >> as you can imagine, there has been an overwhelming response across the central valley. the chief says donations can be dropped off at any calfire location. love to see that good will. who's supporting prop 15? governor gavin newsom. the governor says prop 15 is, "fair, phased-in, and long overdue reform", that "will exempt small businesses and residential property owners." join governor newsom. vote yes on 15.

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>> "localish bay area" is sponsored by northern california honda dealers. hey, bay area. it's time to share some amazing stories and feel good. we could all use some inspiration right now, and you've come to the right place. this show is all about good food, good people, and good living. ♪ on today's show, halloween fun... >> playful, creepy, cool halloween experience. >> ...feeding the community... >> i would love to help everyone. i think that'd be amazing. >> ...cheers to charity. >> make world better one martini at a time. >> ...coffee art. >> they always question like, "is this oils? is this watercolors?" and when i say, "coffee," they, like, freak out. they're like, "what?!" >> but first, the ultimate halloween treat. >> how y'all doing?

come on down.