The small town of Washington’s 160 residents have been part of every Public Safety Power Shutoff, and sometimes the only ones impacted. But now they’ve received what’s called a Community Power Resiliency grant from the state. Longtime Fire Chief Mike Stewart says the 101-thousand dollars will help harden the town more during any outage, planned or unplanned…

Stewart says access can be a challenge during weather events, including wildfires and snowstorms…

Stewart says Washington has also received five-thousand dollars for evacuation planning. The funding is in addition to other recent grants. That includes nine-thousand dollars from the California Fire Foundation for prevention and evacuation signage, and 10-thousand-500 dollars for roadside fuel reduction along evacuation routes, by the Firewise Washington Committee. Also, the Food Bank of Nevada County is providing both fresh and shelf-stable foods and emergency preparedness kits for local families.