Tens of thousands of Bay Area PG&E customers on Wednesday were bracing for their second straight night in the dark and the cold.
Downed trees were to blame for most of the outages. PG&E leaders said the utility is bringing in extra crews from outside the Bay Area to help restore power.
PG&E said because many power poles were damaged or destroyed, fixing the problem is likely to take longer than usual.
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In Saratoga, Fred Omenzetter was told his power is not expected to be restored until Thursday night.
"I don’t have any food anymore," he said. "I had to throw it out. Secondly, there’s no heat."
In San Jose near Moorpark Avenue, Connie Pohl was relieved she was able to borrow a generator and space heaters from her sister.
"No way to cook anything in the house," she said. "My mom is 98 and we have a caregiver here for her, so that's concerning to me because it's so cold in the house."
The Los Altos Grill managed to be the one place downtown that powered on, all thanks to an 18-wheel generator that arrived Wednesday.
The general manager said the backup power source was a blessing for the restaurant and for customers, because they may not get power restored until Saturday.
In Sunnyvale, entire neighborhoods were pitch black.
“It’s freezing, no power, no electricity, no hot water,” said mother Winnie Liang.
She has been without power for the last two days. In the morning, PG&E notified her it may not come back on until Friday night. With three-month-old twins and a toddler at home, she can't keep her breast bump and phone charged until then.
“Taking care of three kids is stressful enough, and now managing this chaos at the same time, it's a nightmare,” said Liang.
Neighbors and friends who have solar power have come to her rescue, offering their homes and chargers, plus a freezer so her stored breast milk doesn't go to waste.
“We are just so lucky we have such good neighbors,” said Liang.
In Burlingame, hundreds of people trying to check into the Crowne Plaza by SFO walked into a lobby that was lit by lanterns, and had to find last-minute accommodations, which proved difficult and pricey for some.
