UPDATE: Evacuations Expand, Winds to Pick Up Tonight

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The unprecedented and historic evacuation of approximately 89 thousand Sonoma County residents continued Saturday night, as those living in cities and rural areas west of Windsor and Healdsburg all the way to the sea came under mandatory evacuation orders.

That included the cities of Guerneville, Forestville, Monte Rio, Rio Nido, Bodega Bay and Jenner. Also included were areas near Larkfield and Mark West.

The new phase of evacuations were announced at a 6:30PM news briefing attended by state and county officials, including Cal Fire and Sonoma County Supervisors Shirlee Zane, Lynda Hopkins and David Rabbitt.

The new evacuations add to the 45-50 thousand residents asked to leave their homes earlier in the day, in the cities of Healdsburg, Windsor, Geyserville and nearby rural areas. Those evacuations jammed highway 101 South for many hours.

For more on the evacuation zones, visit this link:

socoemergency.org

Fire officials and weather experts say expected strong and gusty winds that are forecast to arrive late Saturday night could push embers from the 25 thousand acre Kincade Fire out of the fire zone, and potentially start fires in widespread and heavily populated parts of Sonoma County. That fire is currently only 10 percent contained.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the wind event Saturday night through Monday morning, PG&E has turned off power to 93 thousand homes and businesses in Sonoma County, 87 thousand in Marin County, and thousands more in Lake, Napa, and Mendocino counties.’

Across their service area, the utility has blacked out almost 1 million customers, representing roughly 3 million people in the largest planned power shutdown in California state history.