Comcast’s Response and Support During the Northern California Wildfires

October 15, 2017

Situation Overview:

In the overnight hours between Oct. 9th and 10th, a series of wildfires rapidly swept through Northern California. According to authorities, these fires are the most deadly and devastating in California’s history. The wildfires have burned more than 217,000 acres; 40 people have been killed and 5,700 structures have been destroyed. The fires are producing unhealthy air quality in many parts of the impacted area. As progress has been made, many evacuation orders have been lifted; however, as of Sunday morning, nearly 75,000 people remain evacuated.

In a statement on Friday, Oct. 13, Pacific Gas & Electric said about 34,000 utility customers are without electricity service — and natural gas service to 47,000 customers has been shut off — mostly in Sonoma and Napa counties.

Though progress is being made, there are 15 large wildfires and degrees of containment vary. Reinforcements from other regions are helping firefighters, though winds during the weekend could challenge those gains. For more information, Cal Fire is publishing daily updates here.

Comcast’s Response and Support

Comcast instituted its cross-functional Incident Management Protocol in the very early morning hours of Monday, October 10 as soon as we became aware of the incident. The following activities have been underway since then. We will continue to update and add to this information as new activities are initiated.

For more information about Comcast’s overall response and restoration efforts, please visit here. Our Twitter feed @ComcastCA is another good source of information.

Providing Services for Community and Emergency Response

Comcast is providing a range of Internet, WiFi, Phone and Video service to 19 evacuation/community support centers.
- We can provide a full list of these sites upon request
Comcast is providing services to 8 Emergency Response/Fire Command centers as follows:

FEMA Santa Rosa HQ & County of Sonoma Emergency Services

427 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa

Comcast Service(s): Internet, 10 analog voice lines for fax machines

Grass Valley Command Center

11228 McCourtney Rd., Grass Valley

Comcast Service(s): Internet, Phone

CAL FIRE Command Center: Napa Valley Expo

575 3rd St., Napa

Comcast Service(s): Internet, WiFi

Napa County Emergency Operations Center

Sheriff’s Office: 1535 Airport Blvd., Napa

Comcast Service(s): Internet

County Health and Human Services (Local Assistance Center)

2751 Napa Valley Corporate Dr., Building A, Napa

Comcast Service(s): Internet

Rohnert Park: CAL FIRE

1300 Valley House Dr., Rohnert Park

Comcast Service(s): Internet

Santa Rosa Command Center

Sonoma County Fairgrounds @ 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa

Comcast Service(s): Internet, Phone

Ukiah: CAL FIRE

1055 N State St., Room 501, Ukiah

Comcast Service(s): Internet

Comcast has opened 78,500 free XFINITY WiFi hotspots throughout the California region
For a map of XFINITY WiFi hotspots, which are located both indoors and outdoors in places such as shopping districts, parks and businesses, please visit: xfinity.com/wifi
Comcast is partnering with local authorities to provide video service and TVs at numerous evacuation centers

Customers

In this crisis, we consider it our mission and our imperative to treat customers with the utmost empathy, respect and compassion
To accomplish this, we have initiated special protocols for our 5,000+ customer service agents so they are informed and prepared to service our customers during this difficult time
Comcast has initiated proactive outreach via email and SMS text to impacted customers to provide support and answer questions
During this crisis, Comcast will NOT charge fees for early termination, late fees, relocation fees or any other fees related to damaged or lost equipment
We will work with our customers to resolve any issues they may be having as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can
If a customer wants to suspend XFINITY services for an extended period of time, but would like to retain use of mobile apps such as Stream TV, Connect, My Account, XFINITY Home, and more, we’ll enable them to do so for up to four months and will significantly reduce their bills during this time
A list of Frequently Asked Questions for customers can be found at http://california.comcast.com
Residents needing to evacuate the area are encouraged to locate shelters through the Red Cross Shelter Finder
Residents can send a text to 888777 with a ZIP code to receive text updates from local authorities

Facilities and Network

Currently, Comcast is experiencing approximately 9,900 Residential service outages in 15 cities, as follows:
- Calistoga: 188
- Glen Ellen: 523
- Kenwood: 679
- Larkfield-Wikiup: 877
- Napa: 47
- Redwood Valley: 123
- Santa Rosa: 3,956
- Silverado Resort: 121
- Sonoma: 3,339
- Angwin, Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Rohnert Park, Willits, St. Helena have fewer than 10 outages each
Comcast’s retail stores in Ukiah and Napa will remain closed until further notice; our Santa Rosa store has also been closed, but may open by early next week
We currently have 500 Commercial (business) customers without service, some of which are power related
Comcast is working in partnership with local authorities, as well as utility and other infrastructure and service providers to ensure that our restoration efforts can take place quickly, while working within safety guidelines and other incident response protocols

Employees

Comcast has over 500 employees in the impacted areas
Of those, 69 employees have been evacuated and numerous others remains on evacuation standby
Several of our employees have lost their homes, one of whom was in Houston helping with Hurricane Harvey recovery
We are supporting our employees in every way possible, from providing financial support for displacement costs to monitoring air quality and making staffing adjustments as needed
As is always the case, safety is our overriding priority. We issue daily communications to our field teams, and ensure they are equipped with and know how to use the proper safety gear and are aware of and actively implementing all safety protocols
In areas where air quality is a concern, we offer flexibility for employees and have installed additional filters in several buildings in an attempt to minimize the impacts of poor air quality on our staff

We proactively reached out to and have confirmed that all of our employees are accounted for; we have offered help to those impacted and continue to stand at the ready to assist.