Supervisor working on establishing warming centers for next power outages

When the power goes out, many Plumas County residents are left in the dark and in the cold, and Supervisor Greg Hagwood is working on a plan to ease the situation.

Hagwood is working with the Plumas County Office of Emergency Services as well as the county’s Department of Social Services to arrange for warming centers to be available should the need arise.

During a conversation the afternoon of Dec. 31, Hagwood said that storms beginning next Monday bring the potential for more power outages and he wants the county to be prepared.

“These outages impact our most vulnerable populations,” he said, citing the senior apartments in Quincy and Portola as just two examples.

The sites in each community are yet to be determined, but will be identified depending on the nature of the need and the circumstances. Hagwood said the local memorial halls as well as some fire stations could be potential sites..

Hagwood said he has spoken with the other county supervisors and they support his efforts.

“It’s better to be over prepared than to be under prepared,” he said, noting that other North State neighbors could be without power for another 10 days following a week’s outage already.

“We don’t want to be scrambling in the middle of a crisis,” he said.