The recent winter storms have brought chaos and damage to many parts of our community – and tonight *hundreds of residents between Trinidad and Orick are without power – not just for a couple days – but possibly for the next two weeks.
With Wednesday’s “Bomb Cyclone” hitting all over California, the scenic drive in Trinidad known as Patrick’s Point was left in disarray. 5th District Supervisor, Steve Madrone was at Patrick’s Point speaking to residents who were greatly impacted.
“We had 80-90 mile an hour winds, it came through and as you can see behind us here, a tremendous amount of debris, trees falling on the telephone lines and the power lines,” Madrone said. “This has happened all up and down Patrick’s Point, Stagecoach Rd; and so the electricity is out and PG&E is telling us that it could be as long as the 18th before these folks get power.”
Although power outages are not uncommon in this area, the recent disasters that have hit northern california are creating lasting impacts.
“Right now we’re in the aftermath of the windstorm, but we got more storms coming in with some good winds, not as bad as the other day, but still, we’re not out of it yet,” Madrone said. “We’ve had outages for a half a day […] a lot of us that have lived here for a long time are kind of used to this but this is a particularly long term situation happening with one disaster after another; earthquakes, windstorms, high water, floods.”
Resources are sure to come within the next few days or weeks. Some residents are having to live in hotels as the county and PG&E try to fix power and assess the damage.
“Eventually there’ll be declarations of disaster definitely at the state level, we’ll see if it happens for the federal and then the Small Business Administration (S.B.A.) and others can kick in with loans and other assistance,” Madrone said. “In the meantime, we’re just trying to help people with the current emergency and make sure that those that are medically in need have what they need to stay safe in their homes or help them get to a place where they can be safe; we’re working to set up a warming center and a charging station in trinidad.”
The North Coast is bracing for yet another powerful storm on its way, this weekend.
“Look out for your neighbors, check on each other, stay safe, be careful with your use of generators,” Madrone said.
