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Utility officials defended the shutoff, saying that the wind speeds observed during the event, coupled with low humidity and amount of vegetation, created a severe risk of fires.

But the actions — and inaction — that led up to the decision, as well as a slew of communication issues and website glitches on the company’s part, left many Californians frustrated and angry with PG&E.

“The fact that they have to do the shutdown to begin with shows how incompetent they are as a company for not maintaining their infrastructure and their equipment,” 22-year-old Vinny Le told BuzzFeed News.

Le, who was diagnosed last year with a chronic kidney disease, said she was lucky that her apartment in Oakland was not impacted by the power outages. If it had been she may have had trouble using her home dialysis machine.

“The possibility of losing power and also then losing access to my home dialysis machine could have an impact on my health in the long run,” said Le, a student at California College of the Arts in Oakland.

Meanwhile, her girlfriend, who lives in the Sonoma area, lost power and, as a result, was unable to work.

On Wednesday, Le took an Amtrak train to Stockton, where her family lives for routine medical appointments. She stayed there Thursday and said she may not return to the Bay Area for several days.

“I might as well just stay in Stockton while I’m here just because also I feel more of a sense of security in Stockton than in Oakland [because of the shutoffs],” Le said.