Pacific Gas and Electric Company will shut off power to an estimated 800,000 customers, including several Bay Area cities beginning at midnight Wednesday to ensure fire safety during expected high temperatures and wind, forcing Merritt College to temporarily close.

Merritt College is the only Peralta Community College District campus scheduled to close because of the public safety power shutoffs, according to emails sent out by Merritt College President Marie-Elaine Burns and Laney College President Tammeil Gilkerson.

The Merritt College parking lot will be closed tonight beginning at 9:30 p.m., and students, faculty, and staff will not be allowed on campus. Merritt will close on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10 with the intention of re-opening on Friday, Oct. 11, Burns said that although the campus could reopen as early as Thursday, the total duration of the outage could last “several days”.

“The power outage will begin tonight after 10:00 p.m. and go through mid-day on Thursday,” Burns said.

A Community Resource Center will be set up in Merritt College’s parking Lot B for the neighborhood by PG&E.

Based on the latest PG&E Map of impacted areas and word from an assigned PG&E manager, there are no planned outages that will affect Laney College, Berkeley City College, and College of Alameda, according to Gilkerson.

PG&E warns that power shutoffs could last longer than 48 hours. To see if the power shutoffs will affect your area, and to stay informed of when they will end, visit the PG&E website.