Push To Flood The Foothills With Business After Multiple Power Shutoffs

PLACERVILLE (CBS13) — With three power shutoffs in the last month, Amy Weston felt a need to visit Apple Hill at the start of the weekend.

"It makes you feel good to support local I love that," said Weston.

Weston says the mood was much different when she made the trip from Cameron Park just a few weeks ago.

"So many stores that we had talked to said they just had to throw away everything that was in their fridges. I'm just sorry that their power went out too," she said.

The town of Placerville was among the nearly 1.1 million customers impacted by the PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoffs over the last week.

Sigrid Zandate, who owns Amore Mio Italian Bistro, says it's great people are coming back and spending their money locally.

"Especially this Placerville, that is a small town, we survive with everybody that comes," said Zandate.

READ: Placerville Businesses Feel The Pain Of PG&E Shutoffs

Mike Ruppenthal moved to the town 25 years ago from Reno and says the outages created hardships.

"I can't imagine owning a small business in a town like Placerville and you're shut down for a week or five days, and just trying to recoup that five days, you can't. It's gone," Ruppenthal said.

"Yeah, I do I like to be able to support the local economy for sure," said Allison Orofino from Cameron Park.

Back at Amore Mio Italian Bistro, co-owner Marilena Sciamanna says they lost close to $10,000 and weren't alone.

"We spoke to a lot of business owners and they lost a lot of money," said Sciamanna.

Locals like Richelle Rusconi marveled at the crowds on the street on a busy Friday night.

"We have a lot of people outside walking around just being a community everybody really being there for each other right now," Rusconi said.

At Lewis Grace Winery in Apple Hill, owner Steve Grace was less optimistic. During the outages, he was using generators but says harvest season for him coincides with fire season.

"I think it would be wishful thinking to say that it's not going to happen again,"' Grace said.